


Down

by DonTheRock



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Clouds, Flying City, Gay, Global Warming, M/M, No Smut, Ocean, Romance, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Teen Adventure, Teen Romance, Victorian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:41:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 23,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23598520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DonTheRock/pseuds/DonTheRock
Summary: The floating city of Stratamus is starting to deteriorate, and the pieces are being lost in the endless ocean below the clouds. But Cyrus finds a peculiar clue that might lead him to the one place that could save them.Written in Cyrus's POV.
Relationships: Cyrus Goodman & T. J. Kippen, Cyrus Goodman/T. J. Kippen, Tyrus – Relationship
Comments: 40
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

The first step I climb up, I trip on, making a huge clanking sound on the metal.

"Slow down, Cyrus," Mrs. Hanton tells me as I regain my footing. 

"No time," I respond. "I'm already late."

She just shakes her head and continues on down the stairs to get to the bottom level of the city, while I carry on ascending the paths. All the others walking by me turn to look at the jetting boy zipping between them, but I keep going. 

At about one kilometre wide and eight levels high, each tall enough to hold a three story building, I have a long way to go to get to the top level of the city. Most of the buildings on the bottom floor don't even span the full height. Nobody down there has enough money to build anything higher than a bungalow anyway. It could've saved my leg muscles from the work if those stairwells linking that floor to the second had just been made a bit smaller. But at this point, I'm used to it anyway, so it's not so difficult anymore. 

When I reach the second floor, I see my friend, Jonah, climbing down by rope from above. He waves to me as he jumps down onto the copper railing that keeps me from falling down over the edge toward the first level again. I would never stand on that, but Jonah has no such fear. 

"You passing by the fountain at all?" Jonah asks me. 

"Most likely," I reply. 

"Well, don't go too close. The thing's spraying water like confetti everywhere."

"I'm already soaked anyway," I reason. 

Jonah looks down at the splashes on water on my trousers and good shirt. "Good point."

As he catches the rope again to continue downward to the bottom level, I carry on upward. I see the fountain on the third level, but I stay far enough away that I'm only misted by the spray. Besides, it's beginning to run out of water. 

At the forth floor, the buildings are starting to get taller, about two stories high, and one building stands out the most: the clocktower. It sits in the core of the city, with no ground beneath or above it so that all those from every level can gaze down or up to see the time, which is displayed on both the top and bottom of the structure. It spans across a gap in the metal ground, almost filling the whole in the centre of the city. It doesn't fill it entirely, though. One can still look down from the top level and see all the way to the clouds below. 

As I pass by, I check the time, feeling relieved when I see that I still have two minutes, but then I do a double take when I notice that the small hand is not moving after what I thought was a minute. An undeterminable amount of time later, Buffy steps out of the clocktower's entrance in a lacy blouse and ruby red skirt that hardly covers her knees. 

When she sees me, she explains, "It's broken. My mom is in the midst of fixing it."

As soon as she says that, the hand snaps back to its correct place, three minutes past the hour. 

"And she fixed it," Buffy says. 

Within one minute, I've become three minutes late, and I wave to Buffy as I zoom off toward the next set of stairs again. By the time I reach the top, I'm gasping for air, but I have to do so subtly, for this is the floor of the posh upper class. I have to act as though I belong here, even though it's obvious that I don't. I'm not wearing the same fancy waistcoats and hats of the other men or boys. Even the toddlers look better than me. And the buildings here have no height limit. They soar up as far as six stories. The one I'm rushing toward is at the head of the city, the three story structure that points in the direction that the city's moving, because it is where the whole city is steered from.

I don't take the front door to the pilot's home. That one is reserved for high society visitors, not for the help like myself. Technically, this isn't even my job, but this is where my mom works as a personal psychologist for the pilot's family. I know she's lucky to have this job. None of my friends get contact with high society, especially not the pilot. 

I take the side entrance, and as I get there, the guard looks down at me, waiting for me to explain myself. 

"I'm Cyrus Goodman, Leslie Goodman's son," I say. "I'm here to help her."

The man scans me up and down with his eyes before giving me a nod and opening the door for me. Inside, the wooden walls and burgundy carpet greet me. I walk down the thin hallway, passing by many other guards that each block important rooms that I've never stepped foot in. When I reach my mother's office, I turn to enter it, and my mother whips her eyes up to me, looking frustrated in an instant. 

"I know I'm late," I say immediately. "I lost track of time, and—"

"Never mind that. You've got filth all over your clothes."

She comes over and tries to brush away the grey smudges on my shirt, being semi-successful, enough that nobody would notice them unless they know they're there 

"I didn't have time to change," I explain. 

"It doesn't matter if you don't have time," my mom responds. "You need to be taking care to ensure you look presentable when you're coming to the pilot's house. You're fifteen. I shouldn't have to keep telling you this."

"You're right. I'm very sorry. Anyway, what do you need me to do first?"

She spins around and reaches for a binder on her dark wood desk. The desk practically fills the whole room. The bookshelf of important files she had barely fits alongside it, and the couch for patients is crammed into the corner by the doorway. She is only the therapist, of course, so she's not as important as the pilot and his family. I'm pretty sure the pilot's linen closet is larger than my mom's office, but I suppose he can do whatever he wants. It's his home. 

My mom slaps the folder into my hands, saying, "Bring this to the captain's office. He should be there, but make sure you knock."

"Of course," I reply. 

I hold the binder snug in my arms and step out into the hallway.

The captain, also known as the pilot, is among the most well-respected figures in the city of Stratamus. Second to few, one of them being Mayor Tiordit. He's the one who makes all the calls. Him and the council, of course. But the pilot has much sway in decision-making, and he's never made a poor recommendation. Well, maybe he has, but I wouldn't know. I'm not from the top level. I don't hear the news as in depth as those folk do. I'm not invited to the parties or gatherings of those people. I'm hardly even allowed to converse with them. The most I can talk to them is when I'm serving the pilot like this. Other than that, it simply wouldn't be proper of me to try to associate with anyone in high society, and they would most certainly ignore me. 

My dad is a maintenance worker. Although important for maintaining the structural integrity of the city, maintenance workers don't make very much. And although my mother is the psychologist for the pilot's family, my step-dad is unemployed, so I work as a water gatherer for a few hours each day to help earn money for the family. It's a simple job that pretty much only kids do. No adults would want to do it, for it involves being lowered down off the safe platform of the city and through the clouds. Once I got over my fear of heights, I started to actually not mind the job. Before then, I'd never seen where the water came from, so my first day was like being dropped into a fantasy world.

Stratamus floats above clouds which are always so thick that it's impossible to see through them. Most of the time, clouds sit overhead as well, but sometimes the sun comes out. Even then, it never creeps through the clouds below the city. The grey puffs are too dense to let the rays through. I'd always wondered what it looked like down there. I'd been shown images of it, but the grainy, colourless photographs don't do it justice. I was told it was blue, but I never realized just how blue until I went down the first time. It is true that under the clouds lies an endless span of ocean, something I'd only ever heard about from my parents and friends. And it's marvellous. It sparkles and ripples, and sometimes I even spot fish moving beneath it. 

I suppose that must be where the plants we grow come from. We have many gardens in the city, all constrained to their small squares of dirt, which grow plants like trees, cotton, vegetables, and more. I don't get to see them often, for there aren't any plants around the main walkways of the town. They're only in the yards of those who are paid to tend to them. Some upperclassmen own plants inside their homes, but that is a luxury few people get. Nobody knows exactly where the seeds came from, but my guess is somewhere deep under the blue. 

Sometimes I wonder what us humans did before we had our city, and how we even built it. I know we have a supply of metals and resources here, but I wonder where we got them from in the first place, for I've never heard of us ever collecting more. I don't think we can collect any more. What we have is what we have, or so I've been told. 

Distracted by my thoughts, I don't even notice the boy stepping out in front of me until it's too late. I run into the boy, dropping the folder, and pages spill out on the carpet. Immediately, I kneel down to recollect the papers.

"I'm so sorry," I apologize. 

"No worries," he says as he bends down to help me. 

I glance up at his blonde hair and the way it falls over his green eyes. He looks about my age, but he's dressed much nicer than I am, in a nice shirt with cufflinks and a blue, argyle waistcoat. What really gives away his stature, though, is his shoes, which are clean, shiny and in good repair. I wonder if he's a friend of the pilot's family or maybe another servant like myself, but one way more valued. 

"I don't usually drop things like this," I say. "Actually, no. That's a lie. I do."

The boy chuckles before asking, "What's your name?"

"I'm Cyrus Goodman," I answer. "What about you?"

"TJ Kippen."

At that, I frantically gather the rest of the papers myself. I just bumped into the son of the man I'm supposed to be serving. He shouldn't be helping me clean up the papers. I shouldn't have let him. If had had known who he was, I wouldn't have, but I've never met either of the pilot's kids in the three years I've been helping my mother with her job here. I've seen the pilot many times, which is in itself a privilege, and I've heard of his family, but I'd never met them. 

"My apologies, sir," I say, keeping my eyes down. 

"TJ," the boy insists.

Hesitantly, I raise my sight up to match his, feeling strange. He wants me to use his first name, an irregular request for someone in his position, but I agree anyway. 

"My apologies, TJ," I correct myself.

TJ smiles at me and places the last loose page into the folder before closing it and standing up. After I rise as well, he hands me the folder, and I accept it.

"Thank you," I say. 

Footsteps from behind turn my focus onto the pilot coming down the hall toward his office. 

"Ah, the Goodman boy," he calls. "You have something for me."

I nod, but he's looking at his son now.

"TJ, you should be with your sister in the banquet hall," he says. "If either of you need to attend your dance lessons, it's most certainly you."

"I'm going there right now," TJ says with a nod. 

The blonde boy gives me another glance before heading off down the hallway, and I watch for a moment until the pilot's hand waves for me to follow him. He leads me down the hall into his office, the room connected to the control room where the city is steered from. Currently, Stratamus is just floating in the same direction as the past few days. Honestly, I rarely see the pilot actually flying the city. Most of the time, he's just tending to other business, going back to the cockpit when he notices a storm ahead or finds that we're starting to approach one of the poles so closely that it's getting cold. 

"You can just sit that folder on my desk," the pilot instructs. 

I do as asked and step back to the door, saying, "Is there anything else you would like me to do, captain?"

"That is all for now," he replies. 

I nod and start back toward my mother's office. While I'm walking through corridor, something in my view pulls me off course, and I turn down a hallway that I don't usually travel. Wind from outside whistles through a crack in the frame of a window. As I step up to examine it closer, I realize it's not just a crack. There's a piece of metal about the size of my thumb that has broken off. Thankfully, the rest of the window frame holds the glass in place still, but it looks weathered, like it could succumb to the same fate as the other piece soon. Hearing a voice echo from the end of the corridor, I return to my original path, continuing on toward my mom's office. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I am so excited about this. But I do want to you know that the chapters will likely take longer to update, because everything I write has to be deeply thought through to ensure it fits with the world I've created. It's very different than writing in a normal reality, because there are completely different laws of everything—society, science, and nature. More about the world will be explained as the chapters go on, so any confusion or unfilled information will be answered. I really hope you all like this. I can't wait to write more. Anyway, I love you all as always, and have a lovely day.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm awakened by a crash of the dishes in my kitchen spilling out of the cupboards and onto the floor. Confused, I get out of bed, but as soon as I try to stand up, the sway of the city ground knocks me off my balance. This is irregular. Most mornings are quiet and still, but today, the city lurches up and down in sputters. I remain in my room, holding on to my bed frame, until the floor stops rumbling, after which, I see my mom appear in my doorway. 

"Are you alright?" she asks. 

I nod. 

"I'll have to make sure nothing is broken. Cyrus, will you check on the neighbours? Make sure they're all okay?"

"I'll get right on it."

After getting dressed, I step outside into the city and scan my surroundings. Nothing looks horribly out of place, except that all the lanterns are lit through house windows at five o'clock in the morning. The rocking woke everyone up, and I can hear the chatter through the walls at a volume like it's midday. I begin with the first house, knocking on their door, and Ms. Nitter opens up. Inside, I can hear the baby crying, but aside from a scrape on her shoulder, Ms. Nitter seems okay. 

"Are any of you hurt?" I ask. "Do you need me to get a bandage?" 

She glances down at the scrape then waves her hand, saying, "Oh, that's nothing of your concern. But thank you for checking in. If you are looking to help someone, you should check on Mr. Cutler."

I look back at the streets, which are now becoming crowded with other people. Mr. Cutler's house is closer to the centre of the floor, which is a five minute walk away from where I am now, but I can get there fast if I run. At 94, he's one of the oldest people living on this floor, and he lives alone, so people are always checking in on him. 

"Thank you," I say, and Ms. Nitter waves me farewell as I take off in the opposite direction from her.

I follow the central sight of the clock to lead me toward the middle of the fourth floor, the floor on which I and Mr. Cutler live. When I make it to the door, I nearly collide into Buffy who steps out at the same moment as I'm about to knock.

"Cyrus," she says, her face filled with worry. "Do you see the medic?"

"Why? What happened?" I question. 

"Mr. Cutler was hit by a falling book, and I'm worried he might have a concussion."

Buffy's eyes brighten at the sight of something behind me, and I spin around to see a woman in a white nurse's gown and hat coming up to the door. 

"I'm sorry that took so long," she says. "Where is he?"

"He's in his bedroom," Buffy answers.

The nurse nods and steps past her, turning back to say, "I can take it from here. Thank you, both of you, for keeping an eye on him."

I didn't do anything, but I accept the thanks anyway. Correcting her would only waste time. Outside now, those walking are beginning to return to their homes, concluding that everything is safe once again. There's no point in going to bed myself, for I have to start working soon, and Buffy doesn't look like she's planning on relaxing just yet. 

"You go check on the houses in that direction," she orders, pointing to the right, "and I'll check in this direction."

"Okay, but can you let me know when it's time for me to go?" I ask. "I don't have my pocket watch on me, and you'll be closer to the clock."

"For sure."

I head off, following her command, going from door to door, asking if anyone needs assistance. Every house turns me away, which is a good sign, because that means nobody is severely hurt by the city's bizarre rocking. As I finish my sixth house, I reach another stairway, this one much thinner than the central stairway, and I spot my dad kneel down by the railing. As I approach, I realize he's not by the railing. He's actually by a lack of railing. Where a copper bar should extend between the two posts, there's now a rope tied tightly across the space. It's not very effective, though. Anyone could still fall through the hole underneath. 

"What happened to the railing?" I ask. 

"Broke during the turbulence," my dad explains. 

"That's what it was?" I say. "Turbulence?"

"Well, that's what I assume," he replies, "although I'm not the pilot. Could've been something else."

"What are you going to do about the railing?"

"The piece landed on the second floor, so I'll find a way to reattach it."

"Why did it fall off in the first place?"

My dad glances up at me as he finishes tying the last knot in the rope. "You're just a ball of curiosity today, aren't you?"

"I just want to know what's going on," I explain. 

"Well," he says as he stands up, "the metal was decaying where it links to the posts, so the shaking caused it to come out of place."

"Is this the only issue? Or were other things affected too?"

"I don't know, Cyrus. I hope this is it. Us maintenance workers are starting to have to get creative with how we fix things, because the mayor wants us to use less of our regular metals and materials. He says they're in short supply."

"Short supply? But we don't have another supply."

"Yes, but the mayor says he has it all under control, and we just need to trust him."

"Do you trust him?" I ask.

My dad lets out a sigh. "He's never given me a reason not to trust him." Then he picks up his tool kit from the ground and carries it on past me, saying, "Let me know if you see any other issues that need fixing."

"I will," I reply. 

He curls around to start down the stairs, and I continue on toward the next house, but before I can get there, my eyes are caught by a boy casually walking the floor, examining his surroundings thoughtfully. I think I recognize him, but it can't be him. Can it? Why would he be on the third level? I get closer, trying to see if that's really him or if my mind is playing tricks on me, but as I do, he spots me watching him, and I immediately look away. It's definitely him. 

I expect him to just ignore me, so I'm taken by surprise when he wanders over in my direction. I return my eyes to him, seeing a bright smile on his face, and something about it gives me the confidence to speak.

"What are you doing on the third level?" I ask. "Aren't you usually on the top?"

"Captain wanted me to check the rudders on this level," TJ explains.

"Captain?" I respond. "Isn't he your dad?"

"Yeah, but I'm not supposed to call him that. Not in public, at least."

"Oh," I say. "Well, I don't mean to keep you from your work."

TJ just shakes his head and grins, saying, "You're not. Actually, you can help me if you want."

"Um, I know I usually serve your family, but I must inform you that I have no experience in the flying mechanisms of the city."

Right away, TJ looks caught off guard and he corrects me, "No, I'm not asking for you to do it for me. I just wanted to know if you wanted to come with me. But it's fine if you don't. I'm sure you have other things you have to do—"

"No, I'll come," I say.

I'm confused as to why he's asking me to join him, but I'm not going to deny the opportunity. After all, he does seem very nice, much nicer than most of the high society people I've met. Maybe he doesn't realize that I'm not from there. He must, though. I'm obviously not wealthy like him. Maybe I'll find out why he wants to talk to me someday, or maybe I won't. Either way, if the pilot's son wants me around, who am I to deny him that request? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! So this chapter was originally supposed to be together with the next one, but I realized they were insanely long, so I split it into two.


	3. Chapter 3

TJ smiles and turns, saying, "They're at the rear."

He continues to talk as we walk through the city together, explaining how there are nine rudders on each level, but he only has to check the ones on this floor, because there are other people checking the other floors. When we actually make it all the way to the back end of the city, I see the large metal fin sticking out in the wind. It's rusted and brown, with chipped paint falling off it. I've seen it many times before, but I've never given it much thought, since I've never had to care about it before. 

TJ extends his arm up over the fence to touch the rudder, leaning farther into the open sky than I'd like him to, and I end up automatically reaching out for him, but I pull away as soon as I touch him. I feel mortified in an instant, knowing that was completely improper of me. Even if he did go toppling over the railing, touching him was not something someone like me is allowed to do.

He just chuckles, saying, "Are you worried I'm gonna fall?"

"Well, you're not tied to anything that would keep you from falling," I respond.

"You sound like my sister," he says, turning back to face the rudder. "She's always trying to make sure I take every possible safety precaution."

"She sounds very smart," I say.

Finishing his study of the metal part, he turns back to me, saying, "You two would get along."

"Because we both care about making sure you don't go plummeting into the ocean?"

"Exactly," TJ responds with a laugh. "Someday, I'll have to introduce you two."

I know that's highly unlikely to ever happen, for my meeting with TJ Kippen was plain luck. I'm not even supposed to be talking to him, yet he feels so inviting, and he actually seems to want me around. I don't understand it, but I'm not stupid enough to turn away an attractive, kind boy who wants to talk to me, even though I do know that nothing will ever come of it.

I don't want to outright deny his statement, so instead I change the topic, asking, "Do you help your dad with this kind of stuff often?"

"Yeah," TJ answers. "When I'm not in lessons, I'm doing this. I'm supposed to be the captain one day once I'm old enough."

"You must know a lot, then," I say. "I imagine steering a city can't be simple."

"I do know how to navigate."

"Like, with the stars?"

"Yup."

"I've always wanted to learn that," I admit, "but all I know is about Wilhelm Wundt and introspection and stuff."

"Well, I don't know anything about that," TJ responds with a chuckle.

"But you could learn if you wanted to, right?"

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, we have about a million books on just about everything. Our home library is bigger than the actual city library."

"Wow," I breathe. "It must be incredible to have all that knowledge at your fingertips."

"It's not all that," TJ replies. "Because I can learn anything, I'm expected to know everything. Sometimes I think it'd be easier to be somebody without all these expectations on them."

"Well, I'd trade with you any day," I confess.

"What do you do everyday?" TJ asks. "Do you always help your mom?"

"Sometimes, but I actually have to go gather water soon."

"You're a water boy?" he says in surprise.

"Yup,."

I should probably feel embarrassed or ashamed, but TJ doesn't look like he's judging me. I'm not used to this. Because of that, I really don't know how to act.

"That's cool," TJ says. "I've never seen the water before."

"Never?"

"Nope," he sighs. "Not allowed. What's it like?"

"Um, it's very blue," I tell him. "Bluer than the sky, and it goes on forever, without clouds to get in the way."

"That sounds beautiful," he says.

"It is."

All of a sudden, our conversation is cut off by Buffy shouting my name, and I spin to see her approaching. She gives TJ a head-to-toe scan as she slows before us, looking confused.

"Who's this?" she questions.

"I'm TJ."

"The pilot's son," I quickly add.

I know TJ might not want to say it himself, but it's only fair that I ensure Buffy knows who she's speaking to. Otherwise, she might say something boorish, which I would find funny, but the son of the pilot might not.

"Aren't you the clock girl?" TJ says to her.

Buffy still looks just as perplexed as before the introduction as she responds sarcastically, "If you want to use the technical term." Moving on from TJ, she looks to me, saying, "Cyrus, you have to go."

"Is it already time?" I say.

She nods.

I turn my attention to TJ, saying, "It was nice to see you again."

"Same goes for you," TJ responds. 

Then Buffy takes me by the arm, pulling me along. I look back at TJ as I walk away, seeing him wave, and I give him a smile in response.

"Okay, why were you talking to the pilot's son?" Buffy questions. "Is that even allowed?"

"I don't know," I say, "but the weird thing is _he_ wants to talk to _me_."

"That is weird," Buffy agrees. "Not because of you. I just thought all top-level boys were arrogant jerks."

"Yeah, well, TJ's not," I assure her.

We reach the bottom of the stairs at the first floor, and right away we see Andi waving for me to hurry up.

"You have to tell me more about this later," Buffy says.

"Of course."

Buffy lets me go, and I walk toward where Andi stands with twelve other water gatherers at the edge of the city, waiting for me to get there, and when I approach, the man who supervises our whole operation, Mr. Marshall, looks down at me.

"Goodman," he says in a gruff voice. "Because you're the last one here, you get to go down first today. Just because the city was a little shaky, that's no excuse to be late."

How the gathering works is that one of us stands on a metal platform, only about a metre in length by half a metre in width, which is suspended by four chains over the edge of the city ground. A large crank is pushed to unravel the chain and lower the platform, and along with it comes a pulley system of metal pales hooked on a chain. Once below the clouds and at the water, the person on the platform has to take each pale and fills it with water then hooks it again back onto the chain. They continue this with every bucket while those workers at the top retrieve them, empty them, and put them back onto the chain, sending them back down to be refilled. 

To be honest, I don't mind going down, but everybody else does. It's certainly not the greatest thing in the world. Your arms get tired after about five minutes, but you have to keep paling the water. I'm always glad when I'm done, but I also appreciate that one moment when I reach the water, and I can just look out at the ocean, before I have to start working.

"Certainly," I agree.

I go over to the edge of the floor where the railing cuts off into an open hole, and Andi comes over with the rope we use to secure people to the platform. After tying one end to the chain that holds one corner of the platform, she wraps the other end around my waist and does an overly complicated knot that I can't possibly follow.

"What kind of knot is that?" I ask.

"I made it up yesterday," she explains.

"Is it better than the old one?"

"I'm pretty sure."

"Pretty sure?"

"It's a knot. It's tight. Don't fall, and you'll be fine," she states.

"That's reassuring," I mutter sarcastically.

I step out onto the platform, and Mr. Marshall shouts for someone to start cranking the spool of chains. In an instant, the platform begins to drop sporadically every time more effort is put into the unwinding. Soon, the movement becomes more stable, and the clouds below me begin to envelope me in their moisture. This is always the strangest moment of the drop, because I can't see anything above or below me. All I see is white.

Blue comes into sight as I break through the haze, and I smile. The lower I get, the more detail I can see, and pretty soon the gentle waves are visible. They curl up in points before retreating back down, repeating the motion indefinitely.

The platform comes to a sudden halt about a foot above the water, and the empty chain that loops down over a pulley wheel at the end of the platform begins to move, and I look up to see buckets coming down on the hooks. Once they reach me, I take the first one off its hook and kneel down on the platform before using it to scoop up water. Now full, I hook it on the other side of the pulley, the side that is going up, and I take the next bucket down.

I'm about to place it in the sea again when I spot a gleam in the distance. As it floats closer, it becomes apparent that it's a bottle with a cork in the top, and there's something else inside it.

I set the bucket back down on the platform and pull on the rope around my waist, double checking to make sure it's secure. Once deemed safe, I lay down on my stomach and stretch out for the bottle. Initially it's too far, but after another wave hits, it comes rocking in my direction. I grab the glass neck and lift it out of the ocean, amazed by what I've found.

Curious, I gaze around to see if anyone else is here, but I'm the only one. How did this get here? Who left it here? Did someone drop it, or was it intentional?

Usually corks are hard to get out, which this one is, but I do manage to use my teeth to pull it out, and I spit the cork back into the ocean where it drifts away. Inside the bottle, there's a curled up piece of paper, and one corner of the paper is close enough to the top of the bottle that I can almost reach it, but my fingers are too big. I can't get the paper out now, but I'm not willing to just accept defeat, so I tuck the bottle into the pocket on the inside of my coat for now, deciding I'll try again when I'm not supposed to be bucketing water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, cool. You've read both chapters. I hope you liked them. I'm excited. Um, yeah. Love you all! Bye!


	4. Chapter 4

Inside the clocktower is Buffy's home. The middle flight is the only one where her family lives. The other two have clockwork taking up much of the space. Her room lies beside her grandpa's at the end up the hallway. There are no windows, but the gas lights on the walls allow us to see. The wallpaper is distinctive to Buffy's house. It's been here for decades, lines of swirling golden flowers on a cream-coloured background. It might've been white at one point, but age has painted it differently. Andi, Jonah and Buffy sit on the floor with me, because I told them they should gather around. 

"Are you going to tell us about how you're hanging out with a Kippen?" Buffy says. 

"The pilot?" Jonah reacts. 

"His son," Buffy clarifies. 

"Wait, when did this start?" Andi questions. 

"A few days ago, he introduced himself to me when I was working with my mom," I explain, "but that's not what I wanted to tell you guys about."

"How did you become friends with a top-level boy?" Andi goes on, still stuck on the last thought. 

"I have no idea," I reply, "but I have something more important to show you."

I open my jacket and pull out the clear bottle that I've been keeping in there for the whole day. All my friends stare at it as I set it down on the wooden planks. The piece of paper lies curled up inside in the exact same position is was in earlier. 

"What is that?" Jonah asks. 

"I don't know," I say. "I found it when I was gathering water. It was just floating in the ocean."

"How did it get there?" Andi wonders. 

"I don't know that either. There was no one around."

"Well, what's the piece of paper?" Jonah goes on. 

"I haven't looked at it yet," I explain. "I need tweezers to get it out."

Buffy jumps to her feet immediately and dashes off down the hall, coming back in a few minutes with a pair of tweezers. She drops down to the floor and grabs the bottle. It takes a steady hand to precisely shimmy the rolled paper out through the tiny neck of the bottle, but soon she gets it, and the paper unfurls. She places the page down in the centre of our circle, and we all stare at it, but right away, I can tell none of it makes sense. 

It looks like something a child scribbled while bored. There are three line drawings, which each look like connect-the-dots games for images that don't actually look like anything. Mixed in with those is a brownish-green blob, with some dots and lines drawn over it.

**..-. --- .-.. -..**

On each edge of the paper there are other dot and line messes as well. 

**. ... --.. .- -.- ..**

**-.- . .-.. . - ..**

**-.. . .-.. ..**

**-. -.-- ..- --. .- -**

And in the top left corner, there is one more collection of marks. 

**.--- ..- -. .. ..- ... / -....**

It looks like this page was used to test the ink in a fountain pen before being used for something actually important. 

"Well, this is underwhelming," Jonah mutters. 

"No, it's not," Buffy says. "It's morse code."

"What?" Andi responds. 

"Morse code," she repeats. "It's something the cities use to communicate with each other."

"Okay, so what does it say?" Jonah asks. 

"I don't know," she says. 

"You don't know?"

"I know of morse code, but I don't know it."

"So how do we learn?" Andi says. 

"The library," I say. "There must be a book there."

"Is the library still open?" Andi asks. 

"It's only five to seven," I answer. "It must be."

Buffy's the one to take the paper from the ground and fold it up, but realizing she has no pockets, she passes it to me to hold on to. Together, we exit the clocktower and travel up toward the sixth floor. The library is close to the centre of the level here, for it is the main purpose for many who come to this level. The irony of the library is that, although it's the hub for knowledge for any common people in the city, it's certainly not where the majority of the city's books are stored. Many are actually owned by those on the top floor and kept in their own libraries. I've never seen any other libraries before, but I imagine they must be grand. Although the selection is limited, the city library still keeps many useful texts. The only issue with it is that, being only teenagers, none of my friends nor I am allowed to actually take books out.

When we actually reach the library, we are cursed with another problem. 

"The doors are locked," buffy says after trying to pull them open.

"Really?" Jonah responds. He steps forward to test the handles himself, and Buffy just glares at him as he turns and confirms, "Yup, it's locked."

"Wow, really?" Buffy mumbles sarcastically.

Andi and I go over to put our faces up against the glass window beside the doors. Inside, there are no lights, just rows of shadowy bookcases. 

"Why is it closed?" Andi questions. "I thought it was supposed to be open."

"I've never seen the library closed before," I comment. 

"Wait, I'm dumb," Buffy says suddenly. "Mr. Cutler was probably told not to go to work today after maybe getting a concussion."

Of course. Along with being among the oldest people around, Mr. Cutler is also the librarian. Even though many others have offered to take over the library from him to let him rest, he always refuses to leave that building in the care of anyone else. It's as much his child as I am my mother's. 

"So I guess we'll have to try again tomorrow," Jonah says. 

"I suppose so," I agree. 

The four of us start sauntering away in defeat. I'm disappointed that we came all the way here just to have to leave again. But while we're walking, Andi's mind goes to something else. 

"So tell me more about this boy."

"We're just friends if anything," I respond. 

"I didn't say you were anything more," Andi says. 

"No, but you implied it."

"Okay, well, what am I supposed to think?" she argues. "You tell me that the pilot's son is hanging out with you. By reasonable deduction, it's probable that he thinks you're cute."

"He does not think I'm cute," I counter. 

"His eyes said otherwise," Buffy says. 

"Then you were looking at someone else's eyes, because he doesn't like me that way. And I've talked to him, like, twice. That's hardly even hanging out."

"But with a top-level boy, anything beyond a look is pretty big," Jonah joins in. 

"You guys can think what you want, but you'll be disappointed when it turns out to be exactly what I think it is: nothing."

They all share a glance before looking over to me again with grins that tell me they don't believe me. 

Then out of the blue, a loud crack sounds out, and Buffy screams as her foot hooks through a hole in the floor. Jonah immediately catches her hands to keep her from falling. Thankfully the hole is only the size of her foot, so she couldn't drop clean through anyway. She climbs back up onto the metal, stepping as far away from the hole as possible. All four of us gaze down at the perfect square that's broken free from the floor and plummeted down to the bottom level. The edges around where it was connected to the neighbouring pieces are rusted and dented with some screws missing. 

Soon, people begin stepping out from the nearby houses, and they chatter with one another in concern. Buffy bends down to touch the gash on her ankle, resulting in her fingertips being coloured by her blood. 

"What is going on?" she mutters. 

"The city's getting old," I respond. 

"If a city can age, does that mean eventually it can die?" Andi wonders. 

I look over at her with worried eyes. "Let's hope not."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm excited for the next one. I may write it today, but I'm not sure, because I also have a test on Monday that I need to study for. Anyway, I love you all. Have a great day!


	5. Chapter 5

"What should I do with this one?" I ask.

I hold up the page for my mother to see, and she glances up from her work at her desk to make a decision. 

"Well, is it from this year or last year?" she wonders. 

"It doesn't have a date," I answer. 

"Then keep it in that folder just to be safe."

I'm pretty sure it's sunny today. It was when I came in, although I wouldn't know now. I often wish my mother's office had a window, but I know her office is surrounded by several other rooms, so the best view she would get is of the maid's closet. Thankfully, I'm almost done for the day, and then I'll be able to go join my friends to finish solving the mystery that we left open yesterday. 

To do with the floor of the sixth level, that was repaired to the best of the maintenance workers' abilities, although it remains blocked off by signs warning people not to step there. It's not even a metal patch job, because the metal square that dropped out was too damaged to be put back, so now it's just a wooden board. It bends when you step on it. I definitely won't be testing it myself, and Buffy, as brave as she is, certainly won't, because she's smart enough to learn from past events. 

As I'm putting away the folder back on the bookshelf, I hear a knock on the door, and my mother stands up in and instant. With the respect she emanates, you'd think she were seeing the captain walk in, when when I turn to look, it's just TJ.

"Hello, Mr. Kippen," she says.

"Hi, Dr. Goodman," he replies. Then he flicks his eyes to me, giving me a smile before looking back to my mom. "May I borrow your son for a bit?"

"Certainly," my mom replies. "Cyrus would be delighted to serve you. Right, honey?"

She looks at me, telling me with her eyes to be respectful and help the boy, but little does she know I have no objections toward doing so. 

"Of course," I say. 

I leave what I'm doing and join TJ in a walk down the hallway. As soon as we're out of view from the office, he takes a step in closer, filling the space between us so that we're not so far apart anymore. I can feel his hand brushing against mine with each swing, and I can't say I mind it. 

"So where exactly are we going?" I question. 

"I'm going to show you something," he replies. 

"What are you going to show me?"

"You'll see."

"Is it something I've heard of before?"

"Do you always ask this many questions?"

"Yes."

He glances down at me and smiles, responding, "Good thing I don't mind it."

"That is good," I agree with a grin of my own. "Can I guess what it is?"

TJ lets out a sigh which turns into a laugh as he pulls open a door and motions for me to go through first. 

"Thank you," I say. 

"You're welcome. Just go up these stairs."

The stairwell is dim, but it's lit by actual lightbulbs, so that's pretty cool. I start up the spiral staircase, sensing TJ as he follows close behind. After climbing for a while, I start to wonder where he's taking me, but that ends when I push open the door and step into a huge circular room with a glass dome ceiling covering me from the wind. 

Gazing up is incredible. I've never been able to look up and see just sky without another floor or buildings blocking some of my view. But now, cirrus clouds swirl over the sky like candy floss, and sunlight hits me straight on. 

"Woah," I breathe. 

"You said you were interested in stars, so I thought you might want to see where my family stargazes."

"It's incredible."

"The telescope's over there," TJ says, pointing toward the centre. 

"Telescope?"

I turn around to see the long magnifying device. It's gold in colour and standing high on three legs, tilted up toward the sky. When I'm about to try to look through it, TJ stops me. 

"It doesn't work too well in the daytime," he explains. 

"Well, it's still really neat," I say. 

"I thought you'd think so," he responds with a soft smile. 

"So you can look at the stars every night if you wanted to," I say.

"Yeah, but I spent a lot of astronomy lessons up here when I was younger, so after I associated this place with school, I kind of stopped coming up here as often. But it is really beautiful."

"Speaking of lessons, how is your dancing?"

He turns red-faced in an instant. "What?"

"When I met you, captain mentioned that you had dance lessons."

"Oh, right. Uh, yeah, I'm average at best."

"What is the dancing for?" I wonder. "Do you attend many parties and banquets?"

"Yeah. There's actually one coming up soon, which is why captain's especially concerned with making sure I attend my lessons."

"What's the party for?" 

"The Brodsky's, another family close to ours, just likes to hold gatherings in the city. It's going to be in the street outside, like, literally right in front of my house, and there will probably be musicians there. I'm not a fan of the songs they play, but music is music I guess."

"It sounds like it will be fun," I say. 

"I wish you could come." He immediately stops his sentence as soon as it comes out and quickly adds, "Because most of the teenagers around here are annoying, and you're not annoying."

"That's the nicest compliment anyone's ever given me," I tease.

TJ smiles and lets out a laugh, explaining, "You're a lot better than just not annoying."

"You are also very not annoying," I say. "That's a good quality for a future captain to have."

Then TJ's smile dims. "Yeah, I guess."

"Did I say something wrong?" I ask. 

"No, it's not you," he assures me. "It's just that sometimes I think I'm too much of a mess to be captain. I'm not good at any of the stuff I'm supposed to be good at, and I feel like I'm constantly letting my parents down whenever I can't do simple things like learn stupid dances. Honestly, I think my sister would be a way better captain than me."

"TJ," I say, stepping up to him. At this distance, I feel my heartbeat starting to spring to life, but I do my best to shush it. I know nothing can happen. "If it's truly something you care about, you'll be amazing. I guarantee it. Besides, captain or not, I'll still think you're pretty great."

His expression lifts again, and I feel his eyes catch on mine like fire on a match. For a while, neither of us do anything. We just stare at each other, and I sense the space between us getting smaller. But that ends when the door whips open, and we both spin to see a blonde girl wearing a lilac purple dress with lace details that only someone of high status could afford. 

"TJ," she says looking from him to me then to him again. "Who is this?"

"Cyrus," TJ says, "this is my sister, Amber."

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Kippen," I say. 

She just nods once slowly before returning her focus to her brother. 

"He's Dr. Goodman's son," TJ explains. "I just wanted to show him around a bit."

Amber seems even more confused by that. "You know Captain would flip out if he knew you were wandering around with one of the servants."

TJ lets out an exasperated sigh and rolls his eyes, at which Amber crosses her arms. 

"I'm sorry," I say, taking a step back. "I'll go."

"No, Cyrus—"

"It's okay," I say to TJ. "I'll see you another time."

I give him a small smile, and he returns it, calming down in an instant. 

"Okay," he says. 

Amber eyes me as I pass by her to go back down to my mom, where I suppose I'm supposed to be. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Here's another chapter. I thought this was cute. I hope you all liked it. The story is going to start picking up a lot more next chapter, and if any of you manage to figure out the puzzle on the paper before the GHC does, please dm me and let me know your guesses, because that'd be cool to see if anyone can figure it out. Anyway, have a good night. Bye!


	6. Chapter 6

At first, we think the library must be closed again, because there it no light coming from inside, but the door is unlocked, so we go in. It's completely silent, but motion from the front counter turns us all to see Mr. Cutler's smiling face. 

"Hello, children!" he says. "Come to learn, have you?"

"Hi, Mr. Cutler," Buffy says. "Are you feeling better?"

"Oh, yes," he replies. "Much better. I just have to keep the lights out. Doctor's orders."

Some sunlight is still able to shine in through the many windows, although the level above us blocks most of it, so much of the light entering from outside is actually from the lamps that hang over the streets from above. Reading might be difficult without something brighter, but I suppose I don't want Mr. Cutler's concussion to get worse.

"Can I help you kids find anything?" he asks. 

"Do you have any books on morse code?" Buffy wonders. 

"Well, that's an interesting thing to be searching for. Yes, check isle 9."

Buffy gives him a smile. "Thank you."

Jonah, Andi and I follow Buffy down the isle he stated, and right away, we all start checking the shelves. 

"I can hardly see anything," Andi whispers. 

"Same, but this is as much light as we have," Buffy responds. 

I scan the spine of a leather-bound book on the shelf right of me. It reads nothing more than just 'Fish'. The farther down the isle I get, the harder it is to see, and pretty soon I'm relying on my sense of touch to feel the letters engraved on the books. 

"I'm gonna need glasses after this," I mutter. 

Suddenly, Andi shouts, "I found it!" 

The rest of us all swarm her like bugs, looking down at the book in her hands. It's hard to see, but I'm trusting that it's the one we need. She carries it down the isle, toward table by the window so that we can all see it better, and Buffy takes out her pencil and piece of paper that she brought to get ready to decipher the messages. 

"Ready?" Andi says, and Buffy nods. "Cyrus, do you have the paper?"

I take out the drawing from my coat pocket. Some of the edges are crinkled, so I try to press them flat on the table. Andi looks back and forth between the book and the page, matching the dots and lines to figure out the letters, and as she does, she says them aloud. 

"Okay, the word at the top of the page is E…S…Z…A…K…I."

"Yeah?" Buffy says, having finished writing that down. 

"That's the whole word," Andi responds. 

"What?"

Buffy takes the book from Andi and looks at it herself, comparing the code chart to what she's written and to what's on the paper. 

"That can't be right," Buffy mumbles. 

"Maybe it's gibberish," Jonah says. 

"Seems like it," Buffy mutters. 

"Maybe not gibberish," I say, "but it could be a different language." 

"You're right," Andi says. "Let's finish decoding the rest, and then we can see if we recognize anything."

Her and Buffy continue the process of talking and writing, until the whole page has gone from random dots and lines to random letters. The words on each of the four edges, going clockwise, read, "Eszaki," "Nyugat," "Deli," and "Keleti." In the top left corner is "Junius 6," and over the green-brown blob is "Fold."

"At least one word is in English," Jonah says. 

"It can't be," Buffy denies. "The rest isn't English, why would that one word be?"

"Well, maybe we're supposed to fold the paper," he suggests. 

"There's nothing else on the paper," Andi says. "Folding it wouldn't do anything."

"I'm just trying to give solutions here."

"Let's see what books there are on different languages," I say. "If we start by looking in dictionaries, we might be able to figure out what language it's in."

"Good idea," Andi agrees. 

The four of us get back up to search for the isle with all the books on foreign languages. Unfortunately, the only language options there are are French, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, Korean, and Dutch. As I shove the last book back on the shelf, I let out a sigh. 

"What now?" I say. "We have no idea what language this is."

"Maybe it's not a language at all," Andi proposes. "It could be encrypted."

"Like another code?" Buffy huffs. "We don't know how to decipher it."

"Maybe there's a book with different ciphers and codes," Andi says. "Let's go ask."

She walks on ahead up to the front counter where Mr. Cutler is sitting with his head rested on the wall behind him. His eyes open as we approach, and he scoots forward again. 

"Find what you're looking for?" he asks. 

"Yes, but now we're looking for something else," Andi replies. "Do you have any books on ciphering."

"What are you kids trying to decipher?" he questions.

Andi glances to me, and I shrug. If we can't get the paper decoded, it won't matter whether it's a secret anyway. Plus, I don't see why telling anyone, let alone a nice, old man would be problematic. Andi slaps the paper that buffy wrote on down on the counter. 

"We found a bottle in the water with a note curled up in it and we're trying to figure out what it says," she explains. "It was in morse code, and we figured that out, but now we don't know what these letters mean."

"Well, you don't need a book on ciphering," Mr. Cutler says. "This is Hungarian."

"Hungarian?" Buffy responds. "Do you know what it says?"

"Nope," he puffs. "I just know what Hungarian looks like, but I can't read it. Used to know one of these words, but my old age has stolen the memory from me."

"Why can no one read anything they recognize?" I mumble to myself. 

"Do you have any books on Hungarian?" Buffy asks.

"Unfortunately not," Mr. Cutler responds. 

"Well, where can I get one?" Buffy presses. 

"I think you're out of luck. I don't know anyone who would have one to lend you."

"Is there anyone who speaks the language?"

"Certainly not. Nobody speaks that language in Stratamus."

Andi, Jonah and I have accepted our defeat, but Buffy isn't letting this go yet. 

"There must be some way to translate this," she argues. 

"Look, the only person who might have a book on Hungarian is the pilot, but you kids would never be allowed to look in his library, so you best just give up."

Buffy's scowl burns through him as she spins away, flipping her hair at the same time so fast that it almost hits his face. She marches toward the door, and the rest of us hurry after her. Once outside, she stops and whips around to face us again with a determined look.

"I don't know how to give up," she states. 

"I can see a plan formulating in your head, but I don't know what it is," I say. 

"We just need some way to get into the pilot's library without being seen."

"That's basically impossible," Andi scoffs. "Doesn't that place have, like, security at every door?"

"Cyrus works in there," Jonah says. "Couldn't he get into the library?"

I shake my head. "There's a guard by the library. Plus, it's way out of the way of anywhere I'm supposed to be. Besides, the guard isn't the biggest problem. There's always people walking through the halls. I could never get in there on a normal day. There would need to be some huge distraction that kept everyone outside of there." Then I have an idea. "TJ said there's a big party happening in a few days, and almost everyone from the top floor goes. That would definitely keep people out."

"Awesome," Buffy says. "We just need a way in."

"There's only one guard at the side door, right?" Andi says. "That shouldn't be hard to distract."

"But we also have to look like we belong at a fancy party," I say. "Otherwise, I'm sure someone will stop us."

"Did you forget that my mom does the makeup and hair for top-level people?" Andi says. "She's taught me a few things, so leave that part to me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I don't really have anything to say. Um, happy Earth Day! I love you all. Have a good day.


	7. Chapter 7

I'm walking through the hallway, on my way to start helping my mom at her office, when I spot a blonde boy to my left. After making the plan with my friends last night, I had an idea, and I was surprised I didn't think of it before, since it seems so obvious. I'm about to go over to TJ when I notice his sister stop him to talk to him. I wait behind the wall, peering cautiously around the corner to avoid being seen waiting for him. I know his sister doesn't exactly think I should talk to him. 

"TJ," Amber says, "Mom wants you to go to the tailor's room to try on your suit now."

"Just give me a minute," TJ responds. "I'm already behind on my English work, and I need to finish that."

"Fine, but when Mom gets mad at you for being late, make sure she knows I did tell you."

"Kay, whatever," TJ huffs. 

I quickly hide my face, pressing myself up flat against he wall, when I see Amber start coming up the hall my way. Thankfully, rather than turn, she continues straight, passing me by. When she's gone, I step out to see TJ, and he looks to me with a smile through a tired face. 

"Oh, hey," he says. 

"Hey, um, I was wondering if you might be able to do me a favour."

He furrows his brows, saying, "What is it?"

"I need a book on Hungarian, and I know your library might have one, and I was wondering if you might be able to maybe get me in there?"

He looks like I just asked him to murder a puppy. 

"Cyrus, I can bring you where there isn't security, but captain is very protective about his library. I'm hardly even allowed in unless it's for schooling purposes. Do you know how much trouble I would get in if I let you in there?"

"You're right," I say. "I'm sorry I asked."

"I'm sorry—"

"It's okay."

He looks at me with sad eyes for another second, but I don't have anything else to say, so I just give him a nod of thanks and turn to continue on to my mother's office. I guess we'll have to do this the hard way. 

_______________________________________

I've never seen Jonah in a suit before, but he's making it work. The girls are dressed to the nines too. They pulled out the dresses they usually save for weddings, and both of them look like they're ready to talk about diamonds with fancy business owners' wives. Andi's dress is sky blue and touching the floor. While Buffy doesn't like the restriction of long dresses, she recognizes the importance of one today, so the navy ruffles cover her ankles. 

As we step up onto the top floor, the piano and violin music steals the air with its romantic style, and the chatter of many mingling rich people wafts our way. The whole square is taken up for the party, with the street lights arched overhead illuminating the dancers in the centre. They're currently doing The Boston. 

"Okay," Buffy says, "let's try to get in and out as fast as we can."

She leads the way around the party, not giving a second thought to any of the festivities, but I lose her when I notice a familiar set of eyes in my peripheral vision. I consider hurrying up, since I'm not supposed to be here, and he must know that, but he's already seen me, so it wouldn't do anything. 

TJ is looking about a thousand times more attractive in his tux. A bronze-coloured waistcoat peeks out from behind his black tailcoat. He seems weirdly comfortable all dressed up, although I never imagined him to enjoy this kind of formalwear. He gives me a curious look as he walks toward me, making me stray from my friend group to talk to him. 

"Hey," I say. 

"What are you doing here?" he questions. 

I definitely can't tell him the truth. I don't want to put him in a bad position of knowing what my friends and I are planning to do, but I need some reason to explain my presence. 

"I, uh, was curious to see how your dancing is," I say. 

TJ lets out a chuckle. "Well, I've been able to avoid dancing so far."

I smile. "Hey, um, you won't tell anyone you saw me here, right?" 

"As far as I care, you belong here," TJ responds. "Plus, you look so good that I doubt anyone else would even recognize you. Not that you don't always look good. I mean, um… I won't tell anyone."

I feel a blush creep onto my face, but I don't worry about hiding it. Then the music changes to a tune I know: Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake Waltz." Those on the dance floor begin pairing off, and TJ's eyes turn to me. I want so badly to dance with him, but I'm afraid that might draw unnecessary attention to me. He doesn't make any direct move either. He just takes a tiny step forward, his eyes falling down to my hands then back up. 

The song rings out while we're both busy standing with each other, me awkwardly debating what to do in my head. I wonder if he likes me the way I like him. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't ask me to dance. Although I know it would be completely insane of him to do so, part of me is still sad that he doesn't. I kind of hoped he might see me as a bit more than the friend he steals to hang out with on occasion. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that, with being just his friend. It's still more than I ever thought I'd be with anyone from the top level. My smile fades at the realization that this is all we are, just two boys who talk to each other but could never be more, and I finally break our uncomfortable silence. 

"I actually should get going," I say. "I'm not supposed to be here anyway."

"Right, yeah, right," TJ mutters, looking down at the ground then back to me. "I guess I'll...see you."

"Yes," I confirm. "See you."

Our eyes hold for another moment, but then I pull mine away, forcing my feet to move in the direction my friends went. I find Buffy and Andi over by the front gate of the building neighbouring the pilot's. 

"There you are," Buffy huffs. "There was some commotion behind the building, and the guard by the door had to go deal with that, but he'll be back soon, so we have a free chance right now."

"Okay, but where's Jonah?"

The girls instantly spin around to scan the place, like they didn't even know he wasn't here until I pointed it out. They suddenly spot him mixed into the party, talking to some boy who has curly, dark hair with a blonde streak. 

"God, why does he have no self-control?" Buffy says. "Whatever. We can do this with just us. Come on."

The three of us stroll over toward the side door of the pilot's home. Luckily, the building blocks us from sight of the party going on, so nobody notices us slip inside. Quietly, I lead them down the halls, checking every corner before I take it. It's shockingly empty, which I guess makes sense since everyone is outside, but it's still kind of eerie. When I'm about to take a right, I jump back, having seen someone in the corridor I want to go down. 

"Other way," I whisper. 

I return back from where I came, and my friends stay close behind as I take them down a different path. It involves taking a set of stairs up and then back down again, but we don't run into any other problems on the way, and it gets us to where we need to go. I peek around the corner into the large sitting room outside the library and see the guard standing by the two tall doors. 

I glance to Andi, and she nods then reaches into the small, handmade pouch that dangles from her waist, pulling out a few pieces of assorted trash. Choosing one, she chucks it across the sitting room, down the other hallway. Although too small to be seen, it's loud enough to be heard. When the guard doesn't move, Andi chucks another one, and this time it signals the guard's curiosity, making him step away from the door to investigate the sound. While Andi stays outside to make sure the guard stays distracted, Buffy and I sneak into the library. 

The ceiling is tall, and so are the shelves. You'd need a ladder to reach some of the books in here, which is available leaning against the far wall. Paintings hang high up, showing off portraits of people who must be relatives of the Kippen family. The very top of the roof has a small skylight, through which rays of sun shine in. 

"Okay, cool," Buffy says. "Let's start looking."

The shelves aren't labelled, but there is a pattern, which becomes clear as we look through the titles. The books are all in alphabetical order. This makes it easy to find the one we need in the 'H' section. Buffy grabs the one from the shelf and opens it up in her hands. I take out the two papers, the original drawing and the one Buffy was writing the translations on before. Buffy flips through the pages of the Hungarian to English dictionary, searching for the words on the page. 

"Found one," she says. "Északi means northern or Nordic."

"Nordic?"

"Well, translation isn't perfect," Buffy says. "It's at the top of the page, so it probably means North. The second one means West or sundown. The bottom is southern, South. The left is oriental or East. They're all directions."

"What about Junius 6?" I question. 

She flips the pages over to the 'J' section, stopping when she finds her goal. 

"June 6th," she says. "That's probably when the message was drawn and written. And the last one, the one over the green…" She turns the pages again. "It means Earth, land, or soil."

I know of Earth, because that's the planet we're above. Soil is what we use to grow plants in our gardens. But to land is just to touch down on something. It's a verb. The connection between that and soil is lost on me. 

"What does Earth and soil have to do with landing?" I say. 

"I don't know," Buffy says. "And what does Earth have to do with a green blob?" 

With an idea, I step away, back to the section where all the dictionaries were. I pull out one and search for the word 'land,' but I don't see anything more than the verb I already knew. Disappointed, I put it back, but then I notice another dictionary, one that looks like it must be centuries old. I take it off of the shelf and open it up to the 'L' section, wondering if maybe there's some older definition I don't know. When I see it, my mouth drops open. Buffy winds around the shelf and sees me. 

"What is it?" she asks. 

"Land," I say. "It used to mean something more than just to land on something. In here, it says land is a part of the surface of the Earth that isn't underwater. It could be a continent or an island."

"What are those?"

I search for the pages. "A continent is a giant mass of land on the Earth, and an island is like a small version of that."

"So there's not just water down below," Buffy concludes. 

"No," I agree. "There's land, a place not covered in water."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. Sorry if there are any issues you spot. This story is really hard to write, and I've had to do a lot of research and stuff for it, so please forgive me. I'm trying. I love you, and I hope you have a good day.


	8. Chapter 8

Buffy's grandpa is one of the most intelligent people any of us know. Although quiet, whenever we want to know something about the past, he's the best source to learn it. History is his specialty. Ever since he passed on his clockkeeping duty to his son and daughter in-law, he's dived into studying all about the past, and whenever he is unable to learn something, he always finds a way. He knows more stories of the past than I could even imagine in a lifetime, which makes him the perfect person to go to to ask about our discovery. 

"Land?" he huffs. "How do you kids know about that?"

He rocks back and forth in his rocking chair while I and my three friends sit on the end of his bed, trying to come up with an answer. Buffy glances to me, but both of us know we can't admit that we snuck into the pilot's office. Then they'd surly get better security, and we wouldn't be able to get in the again in the future. Also, we'd probably be arrested. 

"Uh, we saw it in a library book," Buffy says, which isn't entirely a lie. 

Grandpa Driscoll nods and sucks in a breath before starting his explanation. "Well, I suppose I should start from the beginning. A very long time ago, the world wasn't all water. There used to be land. It grew plants, and there were animals that lived there. People used to live there as well, or so I was told. There were also huge pieces of ice in the water. They were like islands of their own. But then the air started to get warmer, and the ice melted, and the water started to rise. Soon, all the land was lost underneath the blue, and humans had to find a way to live without it, so we built our cities."

"Is that where the metals come from?" I wonder. "I know we only have so much. Is that why?"

"Yes," Grandpa Driscoll confirms. "We used to find those metals in the land. We used to find many things in the land."

"Why has no one told us about it before?" Andi asks. 

"Because when the cities were built, those leading the people decided it would be better for the future generations if they didn't know about it. They wouldn't wonder what they're missing or if things could have been different. I suspect it was their way of ensuring there wouldn't be dissent. If nobody knew of a better life, then they could not blame their leaders for taking it from them. But of course that's just my assumption. I wasn't there."

"So then how do you know about it?" Buffy questions. 

"Because I was like you when I was a boy," he says. "I was curious and wanted to learn, and I wouldn't stop until I understood every little part of a story. My own grandfather was the last generation to live on land, although only for a part of his childhood. Those younger couldn't remember ever living there, and those older were sworn to silence. To speak of it was criminal, and most of the literature referencing the land was destroyed. I'm surprised you found one in the library. But my grandfather—Buffy, your great great grandfather—wasn't afraid of being punished. He believed history was meant to be told. Thank goodness for him."

"He sounds wonderful," Buffy says. "I'm sad I never had the chance to know him."

"All you need to know is already in you," Grandpa Driscoll responds. "He's in your bones. His strength and passion, I see that everyday in you."

"Thanks, Grandpa," Buffy says. 

"You're welcome. Now, I hope you will all keep secret what I've shared with you, because I'm not supposed to know this."

"We'll keep it secret," Buffy assures him. "Thanks, again."

Buffy stands up, which makes us all get up after her. Like a line of ducks, we leave the room and wind around the corner to go into Buffy's. Andi's the last in and seals the door tight behind her. We all reconvene in a circle on the floor, in the middle of which Buffy lays down the paper from the bottle again. It's starting to look more and more weathered each day, with wrinkles down every edge now. 

"Okay," she says, "so let's review what we know. We know that there is land somewhere."

"And since these are directions," I say, pointing to the words, "it has to be some kind of map. So this green spot is where the land is."

"This is a really bad map," Jonah mumbles. "Just some directions and scribbled lines doesn't tell us where the land is."

That's what we still haven't figured out yet: what the connected dot drawings are on the page. There are three separate ones, but none make sense. One looks like a diamond with a bent stick coming out of it. Another is like a box with three tails. And the last is too bizarre to even try to describe. 

"Wait, Jonah," Andi says leaning in over the paper. "If this is a map, then these drawings aren't just scribbles. I can't believe I didn't see it sooner."

"See what?" Buffy says. 

"I think they're constellations."

That makes sense. With the ground being ocean and the clouds constantly changing, the only constant used to create maps of the earth is the stars. But I don't know anything about how to read those maps or where any of the stars are in the sky, because that's only something that those running the city need to know. The only maps I read are the ones of the city, which use streets and houses to show where things are.

"Do you know which ones?" I ask. 

Andi shakes her head. "I don't know much about the stars, and I don't know anything about star mapping. My dad just has a constellation chart, because he's into astrology."

"Do you think we could see it?" I ask. "Then we might be able to match the constellations with the ones on the chart and figure out where the land is."

"That's what I was thinking," Andi agrees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so bear with me on some of this, because I did research stuff about stars, but I might have gotten some stuff wrong, so if you notice that, just take it as a change the way my storybook world functions. That's the beauty of writing a fictional world. I can pretty much make any laws I want, so I like that. Anyway, I love you all. Have a good day!


	9. Chapter 9

Andi comes out of her dad's room holding something rolled up. She slaps it down on the dining table and spreads it out, and now we see what it is. It's two circles, each one containing different constellations. Right away, I can see repeated shapes on the map I hold. The three drawings are titled in script on Andi's map as being Ursa Minor, Pegasus, and Auriga. I, of course, have no idea what any of those mean or where they are in the sky, but I think this proves that this is a map. 

"Okay, cool," Jonah says. "What now?"

"There's land somewhere below us," Buffy says, "and this could save our city."

"What are you talking about?" Jonah questions, but I know where she's going. 

"The city is breaking," I say. "Pieces are getting old and falling apart. Finding land could give us a home that isn't dying."

"Okay, but what can we do?" Jonah says. "We don't have a say in where the city goes."

"No, but the mayor does," Andi responds. "If we go talk to him, we could show him what we found, and then maybe he'd want to find the land."

"Why would the mayor listen to a bunch of kids?" Jonah asks. 

"he probably won't," Buffy admits, "but it's worth a try."

________________________________________

Andi and I walk into City Hall together, and right away we get some looks. Clearly, we're not the usual rich old men who walk through here, but we're doing our best to act confident. Our group chose us to be the ones to talk to the mayor, since both our moms work for people in the upper class, so we're more connected than Buffy or Jonah, which might help us. It might not, but we figure it's better to take the precaution. 

We walk right up to the desk, but the man there doesn't even look at us. 

"Excuse me," Andi says politely. 

The man's eyes hover up as he responds, "Yes?"

"We need to speak to the mayor," Andi says. "It's a matter of the utmost importance."

"Well, you'll have to wait. His Worship is busy."

"Busy with what?" Andi questions. 

"Important things," he retorts. "He doesn't have time to talk to some kids about playground installations."

"We're not interested in that," I say. "We have very important information that we need to discuss with him."

The man looks down and finishes scribbling something on a stack of papers before returning his attention back up.

"Fine then," he says. "One of the councillors will be out soon."

"A councillor?" Andi says. "But we need to speak to the mayor."

"Well, you're not going to talk to the mayor," he snipes back. "Now sit down."

I grab Andi's arm and pull her back toward the seats near the door. Her mortification is evident in her face She's not good with being shut down so frankly. If it were Buffy here, Buffy would have no problem, but she also might have started a fight, so I'm glad it's Andi instead. 

"I hate waiting," Andi mutters. 

"I know," I respond.

But we wait. We wait there, watching people walk in and out, completing their business within minutes. Five minutes goes by, and I'm not worried. That's normal. If the mayor is busy, the councillor must be busy too. Ten minutes. Okay, maybe he's finishing a talk with someone else. Twenty minutes. He could be in a meeting. Thirty minutes. Maybe he was taking a lunch break? Although it's late afternoon. One hour. 

"Okay," Andi says, pushing herself up out of her chair and going over to the desk again. "Is he finished yet?"

The man glances up at her in surprise. "You're still here?"

I see the disbelief raise Andi's eyebrows. "Uh, yes."

"Alright."

The man gets up and walks through the room toward a door at the back. A few minutes later, he comes back with a taller man following behind him. The tall man looks down at us with a blank face, and I can't tell whether he's annoyed or that's just his face. 

"Are you the kids who want to speak to me?" he asks. 

Andi nods.

"Then come with me."

He leads us into a small room with a singular table, which looks like it's probably used for meetings like this one. Andi and I sit down across from him. We wait a moment for him to speak first, but when he doesn't, I decide I'll have to talk, but as soon as I open my mouth, he finally speaks. 

"What's this about?"

"Well," I start, "I'm a water gatherer, and I found this note in the water." I pull out the page and place it on the table for him to see. "My friends and I translated the words, and we think it's a map, which leads to land."

"Now how do you kids know what land is?"

I'd forgotten about that part. I'm not supposed to even know what land is. But the whole city is at risk, and as long as I don't say anything about Buffy's grandpa, then I should be fine. Besides, there must be others who know about land. We can't be the only ones.

"There was an explanation in another the letter," I lie. "But the point is, it's saying there's land somewhere below."

"That's absurd," the councillor responds with a stiff chuckle. "There is no land. Never has been. Never will be."

"But this says—"

"Young man, that's just a messy drawing," he says. "What do you expect me to do with it?"

"The city is falling apart," Andi speaks up. "Pieces keep breaking off, and they're not being fixed. If we can find the land, then we could save everyone here."

"We are aware of the situation with the city's state, and we have it under control," he affirms. 

"Pardon my disagreement," Andi goes on, "but there are more problems with it everyday. I have to go around three holes in the floor to get to my work."

"Then maybe you, young lady, should stay at home. Learn to cook. Stop worrying your pretty little head about politics."

Andi looks disgusted, so I know I have to talk before she erupts. 

"What exactly is your plan when the city can't fly in one piece any longer?"

"We're going to find another city and collect materials from them, and then we'll be able to repair the city like brand new."

"What if they're running out too? What then?"

"That's none of your concern."

"It does affect my life," I counter.

"Well, water boys aren't exactly in short supply," the councillor comments. "Now, if we're done here, I have a meeting to get to."

He stands up and walks around toward the door. With that, Andi and I know he isn't going to listen to us. I fold the paper back up and put it in my coat before heading out of the room and through the main doors of City Hall. Andi and I stop once we reach the street to face each other. She's clearly just annoyed as I am, because we just waited an hour for a five-minute discussion which was useless. 

"What now?" Andi asks. "We're just going to let our city fall apart without a plan?"

Right as she says that, there's a loud creak like metal scraping, and the whole floor bounces up as wind thrusts us onto our backs. I land with my elbows on the ground, which will most definitely leave bruises later, but that's not my main concern. My eyes go toward the staircase which sits at the corner of this level, connecting the top to the seventh floor. With a loud crunch, the metal stairway cracks away from the platform, and as though in slow motion, it begins to lean. Screams sound out from the floor below as the stairway goes tumbling down, completely splitting from the top floor. Andi and I get up in a flash to run over and see what's going on. Over the railing at the edge of the city, I see the chunk of the staircase plummeting through the clouds. Thankfully it wasn't the entire thing, only the section between the top and seventh floors, and there are several other stairways and pillars holding the city together, but it's still enough to make the small corner of the floor bend barely at the corner where the stairs used to be. 

Andi and I look to each other in shock. 

"We have to do this ourselves," she says. "Finding the land could be our only hope. Even if we find another city that has resources, we'll eventually run out again."

"You're right," I agree. "I just hope we can find it before the rest of the city falls apart."

"Me too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. Um, yeah. That's basically all I have to say. Anyway, bye.


	10. Chapter 10

"Okay, I'm completely on board with getting the city to go to the land," Buffy says, "but there are several issues with this plan, or should I say with this lack of a plan."

We sit in Buffy's room, the same way we always do when we need to discuss something. The tin lamp on her nightstand flickers, causing our shadows to switch in and out with the light. 

"First of all," Buffy starts, "none of us know how to navigate. Even if we did, we have no way of getting the pilot to change course. We aren't in the position to be able to do anything."

"TJ would be," I mutter. 

But he wouldn't help us. He wouldn't even let us into the library. There's no way he would agree to helping us redirect the whole city. But if I did ask him, he wouldn't tell anyone of my plan. At least I don't think he would. He may not want to get involved, but if I could convince him that this is what's right, then he would probably at least not try to stop me. 

"I could try to ask him," I say.

"Are you sure he'd agree to help?" Andi asks. 

I shake my head. 

"I don't think trusting him is smart anyway," Buffy says. "He could tell his dad, and then we could be arrested for trying to tamper with the city."

"He wouldn't," I respond. "He's afraid of his father, but he's not the same as him. TJ would understand the importance of this."

"I know you think you know him," Buffy says, "but he's a top-level boy like the rest of them. By nature, he's not on our side."

"I don't really think we have a choice," I say. "Nobody we know is able to help us, and he's the best option we have."

Buffy goes silent as she contemplates that. Finally after a moment, she sighs and says, "Okay. Ask him."

________________________________________

It's dark out, and the fog doesn't help my visibility, so I end up watching the floor to know where I'm going. My friends and I always end up spending way longer at Buffy's than we should, because we often end up playing some card game that her grandpa taught us when we were young. Today was Whist, a game I'm positively awful at, but somehow Jonah can't lose. Jonah is like that. He just has Lady Luck on his side.

The fourth floor is empty, which is expected since it is after eleven, and everyone needs to get up and work tomorrow. I do too, but Buffy always manages to convince me that sleeping is just the unnecessary giving in to one's mortality. Taking one more step forward toward my house, a dark figure catches my eye through the fog, and I realize I am in fact not the only one out. But the person I see shocks me. Why is he out here? 

"TJ?" 

I go up to the edge of the city where he's leaning with his arms on a railing, looking out at the nothingness of the cloudy void. At the sound of my voice, he spins around and spots me. 

"Cyrus," he says with a smile. "Hey."

"What are you doing here at night?" I ask. "Shouldn't you be at home?"

"I was, uh... I was at home. But I couldn't sleep, so I wanted to go out for a walk."

"And you stopped your walk here?"

He remains quiet for a minute, his eyes wandering from me to the buildings behind me and out to the sky. 

"We haven't talked in a few days," he says out of the blue. "I wanted to make sure you weren't mad at me or something."

I haven't purposefully been trying to avoid him. I've just had a lot on my mind that's kept me moving fast at all times. 

"No, of course not," I reply. "I'm just busy. That's all."

"Oh," he responds. 

"I kind of found something," I say. 

He glances up at me, his brows furrowed curiously. 

"I found a map in the water. I don't know who drew it, but it leads to land."

TJ doesn't understand that. For some reason I thought he might, but I suppose he's just like everyone else in this city. 

"There's a place where there isn't just water," I explain. "It's soil above the water that people can walk on and live on and grow plants on."

"That sounds made up," he responds. 

"It's not. People used to live on the land, but when it flooded, we started living in the sky, but we could go back down again if we found the land. And with the city breaking more by the day, it could save our city if we found it."

"So what are you saying?" TJ asks. 

"I want to know it you'll help me. I can't read the map, and I've already talked to a city councillor, and his plan to help the city is only a temporary fix, but if you helped me and my friends get the city to steer toward land, we could save it."

TJ just stares at me as though the proposal is one only an insane person would make. I guess I should've seen this coming. 

"Cyrus, I'll get in so much trouble," he says. "I want to help you, but I just can't. If I'm caught—"

"Yeah," I mutter. "I know. I figured it was worth asking, though."

"I really would help you if I could—"

"But you can't," I finish for him. 

He looks at me with apologetic eyes, and at this second, a realization hits me. I keep asking him to do huge things for me, but I've never returned that favour. He never asks me for anything, even though it's kind of my job to help him. Maybe it's time for me to do something for him. 

"Do you want to see the water?" I ask. 

His frown disappears, replaced by wonder, but he still shakes his head. "It won't change my mind."

"I'm not trying to change your mind," I promise. "I just want you to see something you've never seen before."

He hesitates before answering, "I'm not supposed to."

"It's the bottom level," I say. "Will anyone who knows you really be down there at this time at night?"

He can't argue with that reasoning, so he doesn't. He nods, and with a smile, I lead him down the stairs to get to the first floor. I need to get Andi before doing anything else, though, because a third person needs to lower the platform for us. I knock on the window that leads to her bedroom, and she opens it up, looking groggy from being woken up. 

"Why aren't you asleep?" she questions. 

"Would you help lower the platform?" I ask. 

"At night? Why are you getting water at night?"

"I'm not," I say. "I want to show TJ the water."

Andi looks past me at the blonde boy and lets out an, "Ohhhh. You're him." Then she returns her focus to me and says, "Let me get dressed, and I'll meet you over there."

Soon, TJ and I are both tied to the chain and sitting on the platform. I see TJ's hand shaking while holding the chain as Andi works the crank, making the platform lower down. One of the good and bad things about not being very important in society is that if anything happens to me while doing this, Mr. Marshall won't care as long as I didn't damage any of the equipment, so neither Andi nor I are too worried for ourselves. On the other hand, if something happened to TJ, I'd surely be punished tremendously for my carelessness, but it wouldn't matter, because I'd probably be mad at myself too. I keep my eyes on him as we sink through the clouds. He's never done this before, and even though I know he's tied to a rope to keep him from falling, I'm still scared. 

The second the dark waves come into sight, TJ is mesmerized. It's hard to see in the night, but specks of moonlight still gleam off the water, highlighting each ripple. When the chain stops moving, his mouth in open in awe, and he stares out at the endless navy ocean. 

"Wow," he breathes.

"Yeah," I respond.

"It's incredible."

Wind blows through his hair, and droplets of water sprinkle over his clothes as the waves splash up gently.

"It's emptier than I thought it'd be," he adds. He pauses another moment. "You're saying it's not all just water?"

"I think so," I answer. 

"You think?"

"Well, that's what the map says, and I don't have a reason to not believe it."

TJ looks out at the water for a while longer. He sucks in a deep breath of the mist through his nose, and lets it out through his mouth, like the air down here is revitalizing him. 

"I'll help you," he suddenly says. 

I'm shocked, and now I feel a little guilty. "I didn't do this to get you to agree."

"I know," he says, "but I'm agreeing anyway."

A smile spreads on my face as I look at him. "Thank you."

"Thank me once we find the land."

His eyes hold mine, and I feel the same tension there always is, but I force myself not to give in. I just got him to help. I can't screw this up by over-stepping my boundaries—as much as I want to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's this chapter. I'm actually pretty excited now for the rest. Also, I've got plans for stories coming up. I'll be writing a supernatural kippen siblings story soon, but when is still undetermined, since I'm still trying to piece together an plot that I like. Until then, I have two stories that I won't reveal the ships for yet, but I'm excited for them.


	11. Chapter 11

Andi lays out the constellation chart on her dining table, and I place down the map of the land. TJ stands next to me, staring down at the papers, trying to process what he's seeing. 

"We figured out it's a map," Andi explains, "and if we align the constellations, then that should show us where the land is."

TJ shakes his head, but the rest of us all just look at him in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Jonah questions. 

"Well, first of all," TJ starts, "the stars move. Well, they don't move. We move, but either way, they change place above things. You can't find where something is on the earth by just comparing it to a star map, you have to do calculations and stuff to figure out where those stars would be now in comparison to the land."

"Can you figure that out?" Buffy asks. 

"I guess, but I'd need to know what date and time this map is referencing."

My friends and I all have the same sudden epiphany, and I lean over the table, pointing at the morse code in the top left corner of the page. This must be more than just a stamp of when it was drawn. It has an actual purpose. 

"It's June 6," I say. 

"Awesome, and a time?"

I fall quiet. We never found anything like that. Buffy sighs and pulls the page closer to her to give it another look over. She examines it all but doesn't spot anything. But while she's disappointed, Jonah notices something on the curled up corner and takes the paper for himself, flipping it over on the other side. I see it now. It's smudged and worn off, which is probably why we didn't notice it to begin with, but in faint graphite, another line of morse code speckles the page.

**.---- ...-- ---... ----- -----**

"We need to translate again," Jonah mutters. 

TJ just steals the paper from him and lifts it up. After a second of reading, he says, "It's 13:00. One O'clock in the afternoon."

"You know morse code?" I say in surprise. 

He just glances at me with a little smile. "I know a lot of things."

"So how long do you think it will take for you to figure out where the land is?" Buffy asks. 

"Give me a day. I'll need to get access to the tools without anyone questioning me. Otherwise, I'd have to do a lot more math, and I'm not very good at that."

Suddenly, the light that hangs above the table starts to rattle along with the floor, and we all gaze around as the city quakes. 

"Not again," Andi mumbles. 

It grows from a small shake to a severe bump, and I end up grabbing TJ's hand out of fear. I feel his eyes on me, but I'm closing mine, just waiting for this to be over. It finally is finished when a loud creak echoes from outside, and the five of us all look at each other in worry. 

I release TJ's hand and step away from him, whispering, "Sorry."

He just continues to look at me, responding, "Don't be."

"That's why we need to find this land fast," Buffy states. 

"Yeah," TJ replies. "My dad says it's just turbulence, but it's been happening more and more often lately."

"Let us know when you've figured out where the land is," Buffy says. 

TJ nods. "I will."

He takes the map and folds it up before tucking it away in his jacket pocket. As he starts toward the door, I come with him, and when he opens the door, he stops and turns to me. With him outside in the dimming daylight and me in the glow of the yellow lanterns, we look like two completely different paintings hung right beside each other. And it's more than just the lighting creating that. We're opposites, from his clothes to mine, from his money to my lack of. But even still, it feels like we were done by the same painter, like there's something that connects both of us together without being visibly obvious. 

"So, um, what else are you doing for the rest of the night?" he asks. 

"Probably hanging out with my friends and not being able to sleep until you figure this out," I respond with a laugh. 

He gives a faint smile, replying, "Right, yeah." His eyes wander to the ground, like a brush stroke dripping past where it was intended to be. He eventually looks up again saying, "Have a good night, Cyrus."

As he steps away, I can feel the colours bleaching with every centimetre of distance created between us, and I want to stop it, to pull him back and relight the vibrance. But I don't. 

"You too," I say. Then after a second, I add, "Thank you, again."

TJ nods, his smile washed out from a bright yellow to a muted grey. "No problem."

_______________________________________

TJ was right. It took him a day. Actually, less than a day. After I'm done helping my mom for the day, I lead him down to Buffy's house, and a few minutes later, she's rounded up Andi and Jonah to meet with us. TJ gazes around at the walls in Buffy's house as he walks through. 

"So this is what it looks like inside the clock," he comments. 

"Yup," Buffy says. "Not very interesting."

"I thought I'd be able to see the clock faces."

"Well, you can, but we're on the middle floor, so not here."

I walk behind him into Buffy's room where our group plunks down on the floor. Although we have a regular order that we always end up sitting in, TJ fits seamlessly into the space beside me. 

"Okay," he says as he lays out a new sheet of paper on the floor. He's redrawn the constellations in different places now in comparison to the land. "This is the sky over the land now. I compared it to the sky above us right now, and it looks like it's only a bit over fifty miles west."

"So we're really close," Buffy summarizes.

"How do we actually get the city to go toward it?" Andi asks. 

"I thought about that too," TJ replies. "Right now, we're going north, and I can't make him go a different way on purpose, so the best chance we have is if I make him think he's going the right way still."

"How are you going to do that?" Buffy wonders. 

"Well, he uses a compass to tell the direction, and the thing about compasses is if there's a stronger magnet nearby, that will cause them to deflect. South poles of magnets are attracted to the north poles, so I need to hide a magnet close enough so that it can change the direction the compass points."

"I didn't peg you as a science kind of guy," I say. 

"I'm not," he responds. "I'm just repeating what my teacher said about magnets."

I smile a little at that, and he smiles back, but Buffy pulls both of our attention back to the task at hand as soon as she speaks. 

"Okay, so do you think you'll be able to do that?" 

"I should," TJ confirms. "Captain leaves the cockpit a lot, so I should be able to get in there and turn the city while placing the magnet so that he doesn't notice anything has changed. I can get past the guards easy, but I will need to make sure that the captain doesn't come back while I'm in there, because I'm not supposed to be in there, so having someone to help make sure he stays occupied would be useful." He looks at me. "Someone who's allowed to be inside our house."

"Uh, yeah, I can help with that," I say. 

"Once we're going the right way, we'll have to get back in later to steer downward," TJ explains further.

"And that's the hard part, I assume," I say. 

TJ nods. "Nobody will notice when the clouds turn a little, because clouds can move, but they'll notice when we start sinking below them, so I'll need your help again to make sure nobody tries to stop me from going down."

TJ's eyes stare into mine, and his lips curl up in a soft side smile, and that alone gives me enough confidence to say, "Okay, I can do that."

Honestly, I don't know if we'll be able to pull this off, but if we do, then I'll be convinced that we are invincible. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. So chapter 13 will probably be my favorite for sure, and I know it will be the favorite for many of you. Right now, it's still hard writing this, because the amount of thinking I have to do is kinda crazy. Um, anyway, I'm gonna write some RJ now and give my brain a rest, because that's easy (I say as I know I'm about to be proven wrong). Love you all!


	12. Chapter 12

The moment the pilot steps out of his office, TJ and I come out of the adjacent hallway. Our plan is simple, probably too simple. We could've come up with something more elaborate, but time is of the essence, so we just went with the first thing we came up with. TJ goes in while I remain outside, and if the pilot comes back, I'm supposed to distract him with questions about some files I stole from my mom's office. 

I try not to look suspicious in the hallway as I stand there, but nobody's walking by anyway, so I don't have to try as hard as I am. It takes longer than I'm comfortable with for TJ to just place a magnet in the control room, and after four-ish minutes, I'm getting worried. I get especially tense when I notice the clouds out the window shift in the sky, but it's subtle enough that I doubt anyone else is realizing, and honestly it could just be my imagination amplifying it. Relief washes over me as TJ emerges out of the office and carefully closes the door behind him. 

"What took so long?" I whisper. 

"I had to find the key for the door," he answers. "Lucky I've seen where he puts it. But I did it. Now we just have to wait until we're over the spot, which should be in a couple hours."

I smile, letting out a breath, and he looks at me with matching triumph. And then a voice turns us around. 

"What are you two doing looking so happy?" Amber questions. 

It doesn't sound like she knows anything about what we just did, and TJ realizes that too, so he comes up with an excuse. 

"Nothing. I'm, uh, just going to show Cyrus the hall of portraits."

I nod in agreement, but Amber's skepticism continues to shine.

"Okay..." she responds. "You two have been spending a lot of time together, huh?"

TJ shrugs. "Not a lot."

"So you aren't, like, friends?" Amber presses. 

TJ glances down at me, and I can see his face reddening from being put on the spot. 

"Uh, well, I'm not sure if I would say friends," he answers. 

When he doesn't say more, Amber just gives her brother a slow nod, saying, "Right. Well, I've got other things to focus on than you guys, so—"

"Cool, see you," TJ cuts her off. 

She looks a little surprised by her brother's interruption, but she turns around anyway and carries on down the hallway. When she's gone, TJ releases a breath, and I look at him. 

"So what's this hall of portraits?" I ask. 

TJ grins and takes my hand to pull me along behind him. Meanwhile, I have to tell my heartbeat to shut up. This is totally platonic hand holding happening. Nothing about it is romantic. I should know that. I do know that, but my body gives the typical crush response, but this is, like, the worst person for me to have a crush on. It really has to be him, huh? It really has to be the pilot's son who would never in a million years like me back? Yeah, I guess that's my luck in a nutshell. 

He lets me go when we reach a door, which he pulls open for me to step through. Right away, I'm stunned by the massive paintings that decorate the walls. The room is narrow but long, like a tunnel, leading to another door, and paintings of various faces line both sides of the hall. I look up at the first one. It's a man with blonde hair going white, wearing a monocle over one eye and a jacket with too many buttons to count. The next one is a woman in a humongous gown, blonde again. They're all blonde, actually. 

"Who are these?" I ask. 

"These are my ancestors," TJ answers. "Some of these are from farther back than I can even process."

"This is incredible."

"I don't know if I'd call it incredible."

"I would," I say, turning to him. "I don't even know what my grandparents looked like, but you know what your great great great great grandparents looked like and the colour of the pocket watch they had."

"You never knew your grandparents?" TJ says. 

I shake my head. "They died before I was born. Actually, my Bubbe Rose died when I was four, but I don't remember her, because, well, I was four."

"I guess I am pretty lucky," he says. 

"So lucky," I agree. "You have everything you could ever want."

His eyes rest on me as he replies, "Not everything."

"What else is there?" I ask. 

He hesitates, but after a moment he looks away from me, answering, "I don't know." 

Quickly, he changes the subject, beginning to talk about one of his relatives on the wall, and I listen to his stories, watching the way his eyes seem to wander in wonder as he recalls the information. Every once in a while, they flicker back to me, and I pretend I'm not just staring at him. Eventually, we get to the end of the room, and the wooden doorway with the floral carved design steals my attention. TJ notices and turns the doorknob, pushing it open ahead of me. 

"This is the music room," he says.

Lights glow from the chandelier above, and various instruments lie around on stands, including horns and violins, but the one that I'm drawn to is the piano. I run my hand over the smooth top before looking back at TJ. 

"Do you play?" I ask. 

He brings his hand up to the back of his neck, showing his nerves at the moment, and replies, "Um, yes..."

"Will you play something for me?"

He doesn't answer, so I give him the sweetest, widest-eyed _'please_ ' face that I can.

"Alright," he caves and goes over to sit on the piano bench. "Have you heard of Chopin?"

"I think so, but I don't know any of his songs."

"Well, this one is called [Fantaisie Impromptu](https://youtu.be/Gus4dnQuiGk)." 

He starts playing, and it's like fireworks of musical notes sparking with every touch of the keys. His hands move faster than I can follow, but the song flows like water through me. After the wild beginning, it slows into something softer, and I find myself in a daydream, staring at his concentrated face as he plays. When my eyes drift down to his lips, I suddenly realize just how badly I've fallen for him. I'm really going to regret letting myself get this close when my heart is broken later, but for now, I let myself live in the fantasy. 

When he's done the song, I manage to convince him to play another, and then another, and soon, he checks his pocket watch and realizes it's time for the second half of our plan, which frankly, I had forgotten about entirely. 

"This will be easy enough if nobody's in the office," TJ says, "but if anyone is there, then we're going to have to get more creative."

Alas, when we get there, the door to the office is open, meaning I'll have to make sure TJ's dad stays busy and away from the cockpit long enough for TJ to steer us downward. 

"Okay," TJ whispers as we approach his dad's office. "Just go with what I say."

Before I can ask any further questions, he's already peaking into the pilot's office, and I'm waiting outside."

"Captain," TJ says, making his dad look up from his work at his desk," I think there are some storm clouds above."

He swivels around in his chair and checks the sky, but it's all just white puffs. "I don't see them," he says. 

"You can't see them here," TJ says. "But if you go outside, they're right above, and I really think it might be a problem."

The pilot sighs and stands up. TJ steps aside for his dad to exit. I notice his dad turn a lock on the handle this time, which worries me, but when the door swings shut, TJ stops it with his foot, keeping him from being locked out. His dad marches down the hallway, and once he's out of sight, TJ pushes the door open again and lets us both inside. He immediately goes for the control room, grabbing the key from somewhere while I'm not looking. I'm about to shut the office door when Amber suddenly shows up, and I need to think quick. Unfortunately, I'm not good at improvising. 

"What are you doing?" she interrogates. "You can't be in here."

"I know," I whisper, "but TJ's here too."

"He's in the control room?" she says, glancing in. "He can't be in there either."

"Please just trust me," I say. 

She folds her arms over her chest. "You want me to trust a servant who's trespassing in a room that controls the city?"

"Yes."

She clearly didn't expect that, and it shows as the hardness in her eyes loosens. Before either of us can talk again, the plan works. The ground shifts, and I lose my balance, needing to hold on to the door to keep from falling over like all the items in the office. Books crash to the ground, and a lamp shatters. 

"I'm leaving," Amber states through scared eyes. 

She dashes away, and I shut the door and lock it. We can get caught, but we just have to make it down to the land first. Then they'll see that we were right, and they won't punish us, because we'll be heroes. All my friends and I, we'll be heroes. We'll… _Where is it?_

We're under the clouds, but there's not a speck of green in sight. It's just the same stretch of blue that there always was. Was I wrong? Was the map just a lie? It must have been. I did all this for nothing. We did all of this for nothing. 

TJ steps out of the control room and looks at me with a mix between fear and confusion, but that turns to pure terror when there's a bang on the office door, and through the glass window in the wood, I see the captain along with multiple guards behind him all staring in at the two of us. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. I hope you're all excited to see what happens next. I'm really really excited. I'm going to try to write it tomorrow. Now I'm going to go watch The Half of It on Netflix, cause it looks really good. I love you all! Goodbye, lovelies.


	13. Chapter 13

I've never been in a prison before. I still haven't. To call the cushy but empty room of a rich man's house a prison would be quite a misstatement. It's small, yes, and there's nothing in here, meaning I have to sit on the floor, criss cross, while TJ leans against the opposite wall with his head down and his knees up. There's still electricity, although in just one dangling lightbulb, but any is far from prison-like. But I'm sure I'll end up in a real prison soon. They don't usually give children the death sentence. I pray that my case won't be an exception. 

The pilot glares down at me and his son. He looks so angry that he doesn't even know what to say, which makes sense. We did hijack the city. 

"I'm shocked," the pilot says. "Not by you." He looks at me. "I should've known better than to let a lower-floor family like yours into my house. I'll never make that mistake again." He turns his head to his son. "I'm shocked by you. I thought you'd have better sense than this. Now I have to wait until the police get here when you"—directed at me—"will be taken away. And as for you, TJ, I'll need to come up with how to explain your behaviour to the mayor, but don't expect to go without punishment. What in the world were you thinking?"

"We thought there was land," TJ mutters. "We thought that we could save the city if we found it, because the place is falling apart, and we need somewhere solid to stop."

"Yes, I heard that there were suspicions of land," the pilot responds. "But that's nonsense. We had a plan. We were going to go to the nearest city to dock there and join up. Now thanks to you two, we're way off course, and I don't know if we'll be able to find it again."

"I'm sorry," TJ mumbles. 

I stay silent. The pilot doesn't want to hear from me. I should've just stayed quiet about all of this, but I really thought I could help. 

"Well, sorry doesn't change what you did." His glare turns to me then back to his son. "Say your goodbyes now, because you're not seeing each other again. And Cyrus, I hope you're proud of yourself. Your reckless actions cost your mother her job."

He slams the door behind him, and the bang echoes several times through the room, so loud that I can hardly hear him lock us in. I'm still trying to process what happened. It's hard to breathe. Every time I take in some air, my tumbling stomach slaps it back out again. I look over at TJ as he covers his face with his hands and groans. 

"I'm sorry," I say. 

TJ's hands drip from his face, revealing his burning glare. 

"Are you?" he snipes. "Because I never even wanted to do this, and you basically coerced me into it!"

His eyes are misty and red, and I don't know what to do. I just stare at him, taken aback by his outburst. He's never yelled at me like this before. 

"You said you wanted to help," I mutter. He did, didn't he? I wasn't imagining that.

"And you believed me?" he scoffs. "Sure, I thought finding land would be good, but that's not the real reason why I agreed. I did it because you wanted me to, and I wanted you to like me!"

"What?" I utter, unsure how to take in this new information. "Why do you care what I think of you?"

"Because I like you!" he blurts. He lets his head fall back against the wall and looks up at the ceiling as he mutters, "And not just like friends. I really like you. And I was stupid enough to think that maybe you liked me, but you were just using me this whole time."

His eyes fall down to me again, and I feel an ache in my chest. He likes me. This attractive, wealthy boy likes a poor water gatherer who can hardly pay for new shoes. This is the strangest thing. I thought he would be the one to break my heart. Never in a million years would I have guessed that I'd be the one to break his. But I don't want to break his heart. I want to keep it.

I shift forward onto my knees and crawl across the short space between us. His legs come down from where they were guarding his body and stretch out flat on the floor while his eyes watch me in question, but the question only hangs for about one second before I answer it. I take his face in my hands and kiss him, and his tears seem to halt in an instant. When I back away, he's staring at me in shock.

"I'm sorry," I say. "I shouldn't have asked you to help me."

Rather than reply, his eyes scan over my face for another moment. When they fall down to my lips, I realize he's already moved on past his anger. In a heartbeat, he brings his arms up to pull me back in, kissing me again, and I suddenly don't care about the anger either. We could've just exploded the whole world, and I still wouldn't care about anything except him right now. I succumb to the tug of his arms, letting him pull me onto his lap as we continue to make out against the wall. Yes, this room is far from a prison. If prison involved recreation like this, I really wouldn't mind it. 

The whipping open of the door shoves me off of TJ and to the floor beside him as both of us look up the entrant. As bad as her timing is, I've never been happier to see Amber interrupting us. She obviously got a glimpse of what was going on before she came in, because her eyebrows are higher than a midday sun, and her mouth has dropped to the floor. 

"Okay, cool, so you weren't lying. You aren't friends," she concludes. 

TJ is blushing like a tomato as he asks, "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing as exciting as what you're doing here," she teases with a smirk. 

"Amber."

"Sorry," she says, laughing. "I'm here to get you guys out."

"Amber, you'll be in huge trouble."

"I know, but I found the papers in your room about the land."

TJ sighs. "So you know I'm an idiot who believed there'd be land out there."

"No," she retorts. "I know you're an idiot who was two degrees off."

TJ sits up at that. "So you're saying…"

"You got the location wrong," she states. "It was farther North, and we're actually about to come up on the land pretty soon."

"It exists," I breathe, a smile finding my face. 

"Yes, but we have to act now if we're going to get the city down to it."

"How?" TJ questions. 

"Well, unlike you two, I have an actual plan," she says, "so just do as I say, and don't do anything stupid."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm going to work on Honey and Ethereal now, but I wanted to leave this story here while I'm doing that. I really hope you liked this chapter. I did, and I'm excited for the rest. I love you all! Goodbye.


	14. Chapter 14

We step into a room I've never been in before. It's small with some couches and a fireplace but lots of dust, like even the maids forget about it. As soon as I enter in, I see my friends' faces and look to Amber in question.

"I figured they'd know about all of this anyway," she explains.

"But how did you know about them?" I ask.

"I noticed them walking around with you at that party that happened a while ago."

Oh, yeah. I suppose anyone could've seen us while we were out there, but I'm still surprised that... "You remembered them?"

Amber folds her arms over her chest, looking more uncomfortable from the interrogation. "I remember faces well."

"How did you know where to find them?" TJ pushes.

"Because I was out one day and just happened to see Andi and her house."

TJ furrows his brows. "Why were you on the first floor?"

"Okay, we don't have time for all these questions!"

Amber's face is burning red, and I can tell we've struck some kind of nerve, but I don't know how. She directs her focus to the plan, straightening up to speak, although I do notice her eyes avoiding everyone else's, like she's still not over her earlier discomfort.

"So the captain is in his office, and I honestly doubt he'll be too easy to convince to come out, thanks to TJ and Cyrus here." She glances at her brother with annoyance. "That means, we need to make something happen that will force him to come out, something that will get in the way of him trying to fly the city. My idea is the power. Since the sun's on it's way down, it's currently too dark to comfortably see everything without a light, so if we disconnect the electricity, he'll have to go out."

"Who's going to do that?" TJ wonders.

"I'm glad you asked," Amber replies, "because that will be you and Cyrus. Since neither of you can be seen anyway, it will be easier if you two go down to the power room to do that. Once you get the power off, hide right away, because when the power goes out, captain will have to go check on it to turn it back on, so he'll leave, but there is still a guard outside of the office right now, so that's where Buffy and Jonah come in. You guys will have to get and keep his attention, so that Andi and I can sneak into the room, and since it will be dark with the electricity out, that should hopefully be a bit easier. Once inside, we'll wait for captain to turn the power back on, and once that happens, we steer the city down. Now, the city was never designed to have to land, like, ever, so that will be interesting and very bumpy. Make sure to brace yourselves."

"Cool," Jonah says. "Let's go."

He has a smile on his face like he's about to play a board game rather than a real life situation. It's kind of comforting, though, because it gives me a good sign of when things are out of hand versus way out of hand. Jonah does not get worked up unless it's the latter.

Amber doesn't expect the enthusiasm he presents, so she's a bit taken aback, but she smiles anyway, saying, "Yeah, let's go. TJ and Cyrus, you're up first. The rest of you, come with me."

Amber waves, and Buffy and Jonah stand up from the couch they were on to follow her. Andi joins too, but she makes a stop by me and TJ on the way, coming up close to whisper.

"You didn't say your sister was this pretty."

TJ chuckles a little and glances at me.

"Andi, now's not the time to go into gay panic mode," I tell her.

"Too late," she responds.

Then she continues past us, following Amber. When they're gone, TJ takes my hand and starts leading me out into a poorly lit hallway. The lights that are here flicker, reminding me of the gas lights in my own home. At the corner, we reach a doorway to something I didn't think would exist, a stairwell down from the main floor. 

"You guys have a floor lower than the main floor?" I say in surprise. 

"Only for the power room," TJ replies. "Actually, that room is right below the control room."

At the end of the stairwell, TJ opens the door into a very skinny hallway, which is a decently far walk from the door at the end, but we get there, and TJ twists the knob, letting us both into the space. 

"Your family really should keep the doors locked around this place," I say. 

"It's never been a problem until today."

TJ flicks a switch, and a single caged lightbulb overhead buzzes on. It illuminates the grey room, which is somehow twice the size of my mom's office, yet almost completely empty. The only things down here are a panel of levers on the wall, a dusty, black chest with a wrench laying on top of it, and a tiny, round window on the far wall. I go up to it and gaze out at the sunset orange clouds rolling by. They seem to hit the glass and split like we're a plow going through them. My attention is caught from behind when I see the glow of fire on the wall, and I look to see TJ holding a lantern that he's lit. He sets it down on the floor and goes up to the panel of levers on the wall. 

"Ready?" he says, and I nod. 

He grabs the largest one, which is about the size of his whole forearm, and flips it down with a loud snap. The light above disappears, leaving just the dim lantern to do a job it probably has no experience doing, since this family is used to having electricity. TJ picks it up by the handle then comes over and takes my hand again, pulling me across to a sliding door in the back corner of the room. He yanks the door open, revealing a small closet with a stand of shelves, also practically empty except for some random tools, strands of wire, and shattered lightbulbs all collected in piles. The door slides shut with a heave, and TJ places the lantern on the shelf. It's not bright enough to light the entire space, leaving the floor and ceiling in the void of darkness. 

"What is this closet for?" I wonder.

"Nobody really comes down here, so it's kind of just become an electrical garbage room."

I look around at the trinkets stored here. The reflection of the firelight is visible in the shards of glass, and a ball of copper wires glitters behind the light. While I'm gazing, I notice TJ watching me out of the corner of my eye. When I turn to meet his stare, we look at each other for less than a second before his smile makes me smile, and our smiles turn into laughter, which I do my best to stifle to avoid making too much noise in case TJ's dad is about to come in. 

"So," TJ whispers, "like, what are we?"

This probably isn't the best time for this conversation, but it's hard for me to turn away his adorable wondering eyes. 

"I don't know," I respond. "What do you want us to be?"

"Not friends," TJ answers with full certainty. 

"Boyfriends?"

"That sounds right."

"Okay. Boyfriends."

TJ smiles, and that makes me giggle a little, and I end up biting my lip without intending to. My eyes follow TJ's as he approaches me and places his hand on my jaw, bringing his lips down to mine. After the first kiss, he kisses me a second time, and then I touch his hand, pulling away.

"Aren't we supposed to be focusing on being quiet?"

"I can be quiet," he whispers.

I'm too weak to stop him as he comes back in again, but we're interrupted mid-kiss by the sound of a door opening. I step away, turning toward the door, listening to the person in the room outside of this closet. I give TJ a silent _shhh_ , and he nods, facing the door like me, but standing comedically stiff with his hands clasped in front of him. A second later, the light from the room shines beneath the doorway, and a slam sounds, letting us know that he's gone. 

"Does he not wonder who turned the switch off?" I ask. 

"Nah. It's loose," TJ answers. "Falls sometimes if it's rattled."

I nod and look at the doorway again, but TJ's eyes are back to being stuck on me, and resisting him is kind of like trying to get water to pour upward. It's simply impossible. I cave in an instant, throwing my arms over his shoulders and rising on my tip toes to kiss him. He happily holds me close, but that only lasts until the ground starts to tilt, and the items on the shelves go tumbling off. I hide my face in TJ's shirt to protect it from the pieces of glass showering us. Then there's a scraping noise, and TJ removes one of his arms from around me and reaches up to grab the lantern before it can fall. The world is still on an angle, but now my balance has adjusted to it, and I lift my head from TJ's chest then turn to shove the door open. As I run over to the window, TJ walks up after me. 

What I see is a sight beyond words, which is why all I can manage to breathe is, "Woah."

The clouds are red like coals, letting through just enough of the dying sunlight to light up the huge span of green below. And it's not just green. Hints of other colours speckle the land. Those must be flowers or fruits or any of the other plants I can recall from the gardens in the city. We're getting closer to it by the second, like being on the brink of waking up from a dream. I can sense it coming, but it feels so fragile, like it could slip away at any moment. 

The crash comes sooner than expected, sending both TJ and I collapsing to the floor. I think it's cause I'm used to being lower down, so we're still eight stories above the land, but even from this high up, I can see the grass as my eyes return to the window. The grass goes on for miles, and I see trees. They're far, but they're there. And pieces of stone in large chunks, not a man-made shape. I wonder if the people who lived here truly appreciated what they had before it was gone. I guess not, because if they did, they probably would've tried harder to keep it. 

Then TJ lets out the same reaction as me, also too dumbfounded to think of a more suitable one. "Woah."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! One more chapter. I think I'm going to post both at the same time, so chances are, there's another chapter done either right now or within the next few minutes.


	15. Chapter 15

When we get upstairs again, the place is dead as a ghost's house. Not a single person or guard or maid or anyone is to be seen, that is, until we spot Amber and Andi standing in the hall outside the pilot's office. They both look to us immediately, beaming with the amazement of the current situation in their eyes. 

"Where is the guard and captain?" TJ asks as we approach them. 

"They're all outside," Amber replies, letting out a breathy chuckle. "Everyone's outside. As soon as they saw the land...they stopped caring about us."

"What about Buffy and Jonah?" I ask.

"Outside too," Andi says. 

"So why are we standing in here?" TJ says. "Let's go outside."

He leads the way, and we all hurry out of the house. The top floor is as empty as inside. When I peak over the railing, all people come into view like an ocean of bodies flowing out over the grass. We're right by the edge where the sea collides with huge rocks and a stretch of sand that rings the whole border, going farther than I can see. Once I've taken in the sight, TJ's hand finds mine, and the two of us run down the stairs, all the way to the bottom where we duck underneath the railing to step onto the grass. It squishes under my feet much softer than the metal of the city, and there's a distinct smell, like one of the city gardens but far more potent. 

Andi finds Buffy and Jonah first and runs over to join them. I'm about to go too, but I'm frozen by the sight of the pilot coming up to TJ, Amber, and me. The look of fear on the two siblings' faces is met with the stoic stare of their father stopping in front of us. What he actually says takes me by surprise.

"The mayor told me to thank you."

The three of us share a collective glance, all stuck in silent shock. 

"He said your bravery helped the city in a time of need," the pilot goes on. "But don't think that means you won't be punished. Amber and TJ, I'm developing an extensive list of chores for you to do."

"Of course," Amber responds with a nod, but I can see her trying to hold back her smile. 

"Because you'll be hard at work, don't expect to see any of your friends for the next month." He looks at TJ. "Even Cyrus."

"Well, he's not my friend," TJ says. "He's my boyfriend."

I snap my eyes to him, completely stunned by his confession. I did not expect him to want to tell his father about us, and he could've at least warned me. Now I fear the trouble I've already brought to my family will be even worse. 

Captain Kippen flicks his eyes between me and TJ, scanning both of us. 

"Well," he huffs, "you're very lucky that the Brodsky boy already told his family that he liked a boy yesterday, and the neighbours got over that fast. As long as one of my kids can carry on the bloodline, it doesn't matter."

He looks at Amber, and Amber's faces goes white, but she just nods, keeping her lips sealed tight together in a smile. 

"Uh, sir," I say, feeling like I might not have the chance to bring this up if I don't do it now. "Could I ask about my mother's job?"

"I haven't fired her yet," he assures me. "I might reconsider that. She is very good at what she does."

Breaking into our circle comes someone I've never seen up close before, Mayor Tiordit. I should probably bow my head or tell him what an honour it is to be in his presence, but I'm paralyzed by shock. TJ and Amber don't look quite as wonderstruck as me, but they certainly weren't expecting him to talk to them either. The mayor tilts his hat to Amber and shakes the hand of TJ, but when he gets to me, I stare at his hand for an awkward length of time before I get myself to shake it. _I just shook the mayor's hand. Is that legal? Nobody's arrested me yet, so I suppose it must be._ He begins talking, and the pilot leaves us for the mayor to have alone. 

"I heard you were the kids who found the land," the mayor says. "I want to know how you did it."

I explain the story, which I now can recite like the alphabet.

"You should've told me about the map," Mayor Tiordit says when I finish. 

"I did," I reply. "I mean, not you, but I told one of the councillors."

"If that's so, then I need to have a discussion with the councillors about the importance of every man's concern, even young, lesser privileged ones like yourself." 

Lesser privileged: a nice word for poor. I know he means well, so I don't say anything. It's not like I'd be allowed to talk back to him anyway. 

"Thank you for not giving up," he goes on. "We may owe our whole city's well-being to you."

"You're welcome," I reply, feeling strange that I'm being thanked by someone of his stature. 

When he returns to go chat with others in the swarm of city folk on the land, Amber turns to TJ and I, saying, "Looks like mom and dad are gonna have to have another kid if they want to carry on that bloodline."

TJ's mouth practically comes unhitched as he gapes at that, and Amber lets out a laugh. Following that wonderful revelation, Amber finds Andi, and I can tell by the way they giggle together and stand way too close that there's something really cute blossoming between them. 

The rest of the city goes to sleep as the moon wakes, but I find it hard to settle down. TJ and I stay out on the sand of the coast, tangled up together like elastic bands that would only fling back into each other if pulled apart. His hand plays with my hair as we lie there, listening to the waves hitting the coast while watching the lone slit in the clouds travel across the sky. I always thought the clouds were like a solid blanket that would never be torn, but this seam is splitting. I only hope there will be more like it coming. But as relaxed as I feel, there's still one loose end keeping me from being able to fully let go of my thoughts.

"I wonder who the note was actually written for." 

TJ tilts his head down to look at me while I speak. 

"And if other people knew there was land here, then shouldn't other people be here?"

"Maybe there are people here," TJ suggests. "We're only on one end of this place. Who knows how big it is."

"Do you think I was supposed to find it?" I ask, a rhetorical question. "Do you think I kept someone else from finding the land they were supposed to find?"

"I don't know," TJ says. "But I think if you did, then they'll find another way to get here. The important thing is you found it, and we're safe."

"I guess so."

A voice gets our attention, and I sit up to see my mother calling for us come back to the city now, since it's well past what I would normally deem as too late. TJ helps me up onto my feet, and our hands stay connected as we stroll across the sand, toward the grass. I take one final moment to look back at the water, but as I do, a glimmer of blue light in the clouds catches my eye. One blink, and it's gone, leaving me unsure of what I was just seeing. 

I feel TJ's hand tug on mine as he glances back, asking, "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah," I reply. 

I turn back and hurry to catch up to my boyfriend. When I reach him, he lets go of my hand and puts his arm around me, pulling me into him. The scent of ocean spray and sand is still vibrant on his clothing, and I breathe it in with a smile. 

"So at what time are you going to sneak away from your chores to see me tomorrow?" I ask him. 

He looks down at me with a grin. "First thing."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mysterious ending. If this story somehow gets a lot of hype, I left it open so that it could go on, but I'm likely not going to actually write a sequel. So feel free to make up your own theories about what happens next. I hope you liked this story. I have another Tyrus story coming really soon. it was going to be Ambi, but I decided to hold off on the Ambi story until I'm finished Honey, because I really wanted to write this Tyrus idea I had, and I just love Tyrus. Anyway, thank you all so much for reading, and have a lovely day.


End file.
